Families are facing the very real prospect of becoming homeless because of the way some authorities are dealing with housing benefit claims appeals, we have warned in our recent special report.

Despite being gradually replaced by Universal Credit, housing benefit is still paid to some 3.6 million of England’s poorest and most vulnerable people who rely on it to help with living costs. When councils get things wrong this only adds to the pressure these families face.

Our report looks at the lessons to be learnt from the cases we have investigated and recommends actions councils and local councillors can take to make to make sure they do not make the same mistakes.

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We have had the power to investigate complaints about independent are providers for more than 10 years.

If we find a care provider at fault, and they do not agree to our recommendations to put things right, we will publish a report (called an Adverse Findings Notice) about our investigation.

It's incredibly rare that we have to go to such lengths, as most care providers agree to our recommendations, but over the past few months we have issued two such notices against homes in Kent and Yorkshire.

In the first case, we heavily criticised Kent care provider, Foxley Lodge Care Ltd, after it suddenly raised its fees – and then threatened to evict a vulnerable resident if her family did not pay.

The company failed to respond to our investigation so we published a public notice and issued a media release.

In the second case, Burlington Care Ltd refused our recommendation to refund the full cost of a woman's care, after our investigation - and that of its local council - found care workers had verbally abused and neglected a woman while in its care. The company instead offered to refund just one week's stay.

It was not until the afternoon before we were due to speak to BBC Radio 4 about the case that the company agreed to refund the full amount.

We have shared our findings about both care providers with care regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

• Care home threatens to evict patient if family refused to pay 25% fee increase
• Care home owners refuse to refund family despite investigation finding mother was neglected

This February and March we will be hosting our Link Officer Seminars, where we meet representatives from local authorities who provide a link between us and the authority. The seminars are an opportunity for us to deliver important messages but also highlight our learning.

This year’s seminars will focus on empowering local authorities to highlight the learning from complaints, both to those within the local authority and those providing services on the authority’s behalf. We want to make sure our decisions are scrutinised by those within the local authority who can make a difference and ensure that, if something has gone wrong, it doesn’t happen again.

On Armistice Day, we issued new guidance for councils providing services for current and former armed forces personnel.

The document aims to help councils in England meet their commitments to the Armed Forces Covenant, which is an agreement between the people of the United Kingdom, the Government and all those who serve or have served in the armed forces and their families.

The covenant pledges that servicemen and women, and their families, will not be disadvantaged by their roles compared to others, when applying for council services.

The guidance highlights a number of key learning points from real cases we have investigated.

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Andrew Hobley, one of our Assistant Ombudsmen, has spoken to bailiff organisations at two conferences. He addressed the bailiff firms' trade body, CIVEA, looking at the impact of the 2014 reforms to how bailiffs can recover debts at its conference in the autumn.Andrew also spoke about our role as an independent complaint body and the importance of bailiff firms managing complaints well.

At the end of October, he also spoke to the LACEF (Local Authority Civil Enforcement Forum) Conference, giving an audience of local authority officers examples of how bailiffs had failed to follow the new law. Both presentations were well received and made clear our central role in dealing with complaints about local authority bailiffs.

Over the past few months, we have responded to several consultations and inquiries relevant to our work and the ombudsman sector.

These include the Department for Transport draft statutory guidance on home to school travel and transport, and the Government of Jersey’s consultation on a new Public Services Ombudsman for Jersey. You can read our responses on our website.

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We take any complaints about the service we have given seriously, and look to resolve them as soon as possible.

We pride ourselves in giving a high standard of service, and responding to concerns thoroughly and fairly. But we are also committed to being transparent and learning from any mistakes we make.

This is why we have an External Reviewer. Someone totally independent, on a regular basis, looks at a sample of our cases in which we’ve dealt with a complaint about our service. Their job is to assess how we responded, and if necessary make recommendations to our board on how to improve things.

Our current External Reviewer has come to the end of his term, and we are currently looking to recruit someone new.

If you fancy the challenge, take a look at our vacancy – closing on 1 March.