Torbay Council (23 017 680)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax support
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 05 Feb 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to award council tax support between 2018 and 2022. This is because the complaint is made late, and the Valuation Tribunal is the appropriate body to consider the matter.
The complaint
- Mrs X complains about how the Council dealt with her council tax support between 2018 and 2022. She also complains that the Council carried out a data breach by sharing her personal data.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone has a right of appeal, reference or review to a tribunal about the same matter. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to use this right. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
- The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the issues raised happened too long ago and I see no good reason why she could not have complained sooner.
- Even if Mrs X had complained sooner we would not have investigated her complaint. This is because it would have been reasonable for her to have appealed to the Valuation Tribunal about any decision made about her council tax support and any complaint about how the Council handled her personal information could have been raised with the Information Commissioner.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is made late and the Valuation Tribunal are better placed to deal with concerns about council tax support.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman