Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a letter the Council sent him and about its response to his complaint about it. This is because the matter has not caused Mr X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains about a letter the Council sent him asking him to provide information about any support or assistance he may need at home. Mr X says he was alarmed, distressed and annoyed by the Council’s letter and annoyed and disgusted by its handling of his complaint and its failure to respond.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We do not start an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X complained to the Council about an unsolicited letter it sent him saying it had been advised he may benefit from some support at home and asking him to provide details of help, advice or information it could provide. Mr X also complains the Council failed to properly respond to his complaint about the letter.
7. The Council has provided us with a copy of the substantive complaint response letter it sent to Mr X. It appears Mr X may not have received the Council’s letter given his complaint that it failed to respond. I have provided Mr X with a copy of the letter in case it was not received in the post.
8. In its response letter, the Council apologised for any omissions or errors in the letter it sent Mr X and for the short timeframe the original letter provided for him to respond. It confirmed that, as it had advised in an earlier response, it had written to him following a request by another council to do so. It did not agree it had acted unprofessionally in contacting him.
9. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the matter complained about did not cause Mr X any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation. We do not investigate every complaint we receive and we must focus our limited public resources on investigating those complaints where a person has suffered a significant personal injustice as a result of fault by a body in our jurisdiction. Whilst the Council’s letter alarmed and annoyed Mr X, the matter has not caused him a significant personal injustice which warrants a further investigation by this office.
10. Mr X also complains about the Council’s handling of his complaint, however we do not investigate complaint handling issues in isolation where we have decided not to investigate the substantive matter. This is because it is not a good use of public funds for us to do so.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the matter complained about has not caused him any significant personal injustice which is serious enough to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman