London Borough of Waltham Forest (23 013 428)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax support
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 05 Dec 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about a council tax support decision as the complainant has appealed to the tribunal about it.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about the Council’s decision on her application for council tax support. Ms X has appealed to the Valuation Tribunal (VT) about this but says while she awaits her appeal, she cannot maintain the payments the Council is demanding of her and complains that despite asking several times, the Council will not discuss this with her.
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 a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- We cannot investigate the Council’s decision on Ms X’s application for council tax support. As Ms X has appealed to the VT about this, the matter is no longer within our remit.
- The Council has told me Ms X has not made a complaint to it about how it has dealt with her requests to speak about the difficulties she is facing with meeting council tax payments. Ms X needs to make this complaint to the Council and allow it to respond before we can assess this aspect of her complaint.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about council tax support as it is outside our remit. Ms X needs to make a complaint to the Council about the second aspect of her complaint before we can assess it.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman