Advisers' notes

Maladministration: using the Ombudsman to improve public services

Susie Morrow, housing adviser at Housing Rights Service, explains why advisers should consider encouraging their clients to progress maladministration complaints through the Ombudsman when other avenues of redress have been exhausted.

Why complain?

Advisers spend a great deal of time assisting clients who feel they have suffered maladministration on the part of a public body. In Housing Rights Service, much of our work is helping clients to progress problems involving maladministration on the part of housing providers, both housing associations and the Housing Executive.

Social welfare advisers spend a great deal of time assisting clients who feel they have suffered maladministration on the part of a public body. Maladministration can often result in misery, hardship and, most commonly, feelings of powerlessness among service users. Demands on time and resources mean that we often feel unable to assist clients in progressing complaints. However, only by progressing such complaints do advisers contribute to changing public bodies practices to better serve their users. This article will look at ways of helping service users to advance their complaints.

What is maladministration?

Maladministration is defined by the Northern Ireland Ombudsman’s Office as ‘poor administration or the wrong application of rules. The Ombudsman’s Office cites the following as examples of maladministration:
n avoidable delay;
n faulty procedures or failing to follow correct procedures;
n not informing people about rights of appeal;
n unfairness, bias or prejudice;
n giving advice which is misleading or inadequate;
n refusing to answer reasonable questions;
n discourtesy and failure to apologise properly for errors;
n mistakes in handling claims.

The process

In Housing Rights Service, much of our work involves helping clients to progress problems relating to maladministration on the part of social housing providers, ie housing associations and the Housing Executive.

Where a client’s problem cannot be resolved informally with the local office of the organisation involved, the client is advised to use the internal complaints procedure of the organisation to progress the complaint. This should always be done in writing. In Housing Rights Service, we encourage clients to progress this themselves where possible, offering advice as to the content of letters where needed. If the problem remains unresolved, the client can then approach the Northern Ireland Ombudsman in his capacity as Commissioner for Complaints, and ask him to investigate the complaint independently. If the Ombudsman upholds the complaint, he can suggest a number of ways in which the organisation can remedy the maladministration, ranging from compensation to an apology.

A recent example of maladministration by a public body arose when the Housing Executive introduced a new computer system to administer Housing Benefit. The public was informed that a new system was coming into place which may result in delays in notifications and calculations of Housing Benefit awards for a number of weeks. In fact, the new system took a number of months to be fully operational. The disruption was so serious that in many cases the Housing Executive was not able to issue notifications of awards or advise people of their appeal rights in relation to Housing Benefit decisions for a full nine-month period. Tenants and landlords were often unaware of decisions relating to new claims and of changes to existing claims. This led to significant problems of rent arrears and, in a number of cases, threats of eviction. As the Housing Executive’s duty to issue notifications and advise of appeal rights within fourteen days ‘or as soon as is reasonably practicable’ is enshrined in legislation (Housing Benefit (General) Regulations (NI) 1987), such failure was construed by Housing Rights Service as maladministration.

One of our clients had been in receipt of Housing Benefit for a number of years. When the client became entitled to a Retirement Pension, he duly informed the Housing Executive of this change in circumstances. The client’s benefit had always been paid directly to his landlord. However, he became aware that Housing Benefit had not been paid to his landlord for some months. Neither the client nor his landlord was informed of this change. As a result, the client accrued rent arrears of over £1,000. On complaining to the Housing Executive, the client was informed that his entitlement to Housing Benefit had ceased as he was no longer entitled to Income Support. He was also informed that landlord and tenant should both have realised that the benefit had stopped and that the Housing Executive had no responsibility for the subsequent arrears. Housing Rights Service argued that the Housing Executive had a legal duty to advise both parties of changes within a specific period; failure to carry out its duty constituted maladministration, and as such the Housing Executive should make good the shortfall.

Having exhausted the internal complaints procedure, we assisted the client with an application to the Ombudsman for investigation. The outcome of the Ombudsman’s investigation led to an ex-gratia payment by the Housing Executive to the client, covering the full amount of the arrears. However, Housing Rights Service was disappointed that the Ombudsman did not take the opportunity to make a general statement in relation to the Housing Executive’s duty as each case must be decided on its own merits. Such a statement may have made it easier to settle similar cases. A number of cases relating to the same issue are currently at different stages in the complaints procedure.

Application forms for requests to the Ombudsman to investigate cases are clear and simple to use, and can be obtained together with an explanatory pack from the Ombudsman’s Office on 0800 343424 or downloaded from www.ni-ombudsman.org.uk. The large number of complaints under investigation can make it a slow process and applicants may need to wait upwards of six months for a finding. The Ombudsman’s Annual Report makes interesting reading as it gives details of cases investigated by him in the past year. The Annual Report can be accessed at:

 www.niombudsman.org.uk/AnnRep2004.pdf.