Herefordshire Council (20 012 167)

Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax support

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 15 Mar 2021

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Mr X complains that the Council failed to provide him with accurate information about his council tax account. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient injustice to warrant investigation.

The complaint

  1. Mr X complains that the Council failed to provide him with accurate information about his council tax account.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:
  • it is unlikely we would find fault, or
  • the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
  • the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

  1. I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant has commented on the draft decision.

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What I found

  1. The Council says that it discovered that two notification letters which were supposed to be sent to Mr X in May 2020 were not in fact sent. These were then issued to him in August. The Council said that they have investigated the matter.
  2. Mr X says that this caused inconvenience and confusion but no financial loss.
  3. Whilst I appreciate Mr X’s wish for a more detailed investigation by the Council, I am not persuaded that the injustice caused is sufficient to warrant investigation.

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Final decision

  1. I do not intend to investigate this complaint because there is insufficient injustice to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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