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London Borough of Hackney (202012859)

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REPORT

COMPLAINT 202012859

Hackney Council

16 August 2021


Our approach

What we can and cannot consider is called the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction and is governed by the Housing Ombudsman Scheme. The Ombudsman must determine whether a complaint comes within their jurisdiction. The Ombudsman seeks to resolve disputes wherever possible but cannot investigate complaints that fall outside of this. 

In deciding whether a complaint falls within their jurisdiction, the Ombudsman will carefully consider all the evidence provided by the parties and the circumstances of the case.

The complaint

The complaint concerns:

  1. The resident’s housing needs record not being updated, following the submission of the birth certificate for their third child.
  2. The resident’s change of housing need/banding and allowing bidding to continue whilst circumstances cannot be updated.
  3. The resident is currently unable to submit medical information for assessment, due to a cyber-attack on the Council’s systems.

Determination (jurisdictional decision)

  1. When a complaint is brought to the Ombudsman, we must consider all the circumstances of the case as there are sometimes reasons why a complaint will not be investigated.
  2. After carefully considering all the evidence, I have determined that the complaint, as set out above, is not within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.

Summary of events

  1. The resident contacted the Service in January 2021. The resident explained their complaint related to updating the information held by the council in support of their application for housing.
  2. The resident had contacted the Council in November 2020 to make a complaint. The resident had made other complaints to the Council, which it had closed, as it believed they were duplicates of the original complaint. In an email to this Service dated 1 February 2021, the resident wrote that they believed “each complaint to be related but not the same”.
  3. The Council issued its stage 2 response to the resident on 25 March 2021. This letter investigated the three complaint points detailed on page 1 of this report. In this letter, the landlord confirmed that it had already addressed these issues in another stage 2 letter it sent to the resident one week prior, on 18 March 2021. Having read through each of the letters the Council sent the resident, this Service is satisfied that the Council has addressed the resident’s concerns and that, for the sake of streamlining the Ombudsman’s own process, each complaint is indeed related and similar enough to be investigated under one Ombudsman reference.
  4. The letter of 25 March 2021 was considered the Council’s final response letter and it provided the resident with escalation rights to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO).

Reasons

  1.  Paragraph 39 (m) of the Ombudsman Scheme states that:

‘The Ombudsman will not investigate complaints which, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, fall properly within the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman, regulator or complaint-handling body;’

  1. In an email received by this Service on 15 June 2021, the Council confirmed that the matters the resident complained about concern their application for housing. It explained that applications for housing are administered by the Council’s Housing Needs Team, which is responsible for assessing housing requests in accordance with the Council’s allocations policy.

 

  1. The Housing Ombudsman Service investigates complaints about the actions of local authorities and councils, in connection with their housing activities when acting as a landlord. The resident’s complaint about the administration and application of the council’s housing allocation process concerns its actions as a local authority, as does their complaint about the council’s ability to accept and upload information as part of this process.

 

  1. Complaints about a local authority fall within the jurisdiction of the LGSCO. It can be contacted at www.lgo.org.uk or on 0300 061 0614.The Housing Ombudsman will not investigate complaints that fall within the jurisdiction of another Ombudsman. I am therefore satisfied that this is not a complaint which the Housing Ombudsman can consider further.