Horsham District Council pays man £100 following a delay to housing benefit claim

A report from the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman laid out a complaint lodged by the man – known as Mr X – after it took months to deal with his claim and a subsequent complaint.

The claim was for two weeks of benefit to cover late-December 2023 to early-January 2024. The council initially said it would not pay, prompting Mr X to call for an appeal to the Tribunal Service.

In the July, the council changed its mind and told Mr X that it would pay the benefit.

But he was not happy with the amount offered as he said he had had to take out a loan to cover the money while waiting for the council to make a decision. As such, he felt the authority should repay him for the interest he paid on the loan.

Having heard nothing by the September, he took his complaint to the Ombudsman.

While the Ombudsman could not instruct the council to repay the loan interest – especially as Mr X provided no evidence of a loan or interest amount – they did find the council to be at fault.

The report said: “I consider a reasonable amount of time for the council to have decided the claim, considered a review, and referred an appeal to Tribunal, would have been by April 2024.

“Therefore, the council caused significant avoidable delays, which was fault. This caused Mr X avoidable distress and frustration, for which it should provide a remedy.”

A council spokesman said: “The council has accepted the findings of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman with regards to this customer complaint.

“It has apologised for this situation and has issued the necessary compensation payment and will continue to work with the customer to ensure this situation is resolved to their satisfaction.

“The details of the complaint have been submitted to the Tribunal Service.”