Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax support. This is because parts of the complaint are late and there is no good reason for this. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council or significant injustice in other complaints to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council has
• failed to properly consider council tax support from 2022, because it applied a minimum income floor even though her income was nil.
• failed to apply a carers disregard when she provided information before November 2024.
• unfairly taken recovery action for council tax arrears.
• ignored income and expenditure forms she completed
• failed to act even though the enforcement agent upheld her complaint.
• failed to respond to her Subject Access Request for information.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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).
3. 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).
4. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
5. We normally expect someone to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner if they have a complaint about data protection. However, we may decide to investigate if we think there are good reasons. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended).
6. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact 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 or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Ms X complained to the Ombudsman in January 2026 about the matters in paragraph 1.
9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council unreasonably applied a minimum floor income from 2022 when it assessed her council tax support. The complaint is late and there are no good reason for this. In addition, it was reasonable to expect Ms X to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if she disagreed with the Council’s decision.
10. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council failed to apply a carers disregard when she provided information before November 2024. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons for this. In addition, the Council has applied a backdated disregard to 2023, after it received further information, so there is likely no significant injustice here that warrants investigation.
11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council has unfairly taken recovery action for council tax arrears. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation. The Council took the required steps before progressing action, and it held recovery for periods while it considered matters.
12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council ignored income and expenditure forms she completed. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation. The Council explained Ms X may have sent income forms to its Welfare Benefits team, but these were not submitted to the council tax team. It explained why it needed the form which was for a different purpose.
13. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council failed to act even though its enforcement agent upheld her complaint. There is not enough evidence of fault to warrant investigation. I have not seen evidence the agent upheld a complaint.
14. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint that the Council failed to respond to her Subject Access Request for information it held about her. This is because it is reasonable to expect Ms X to refer to the Information Commissioner.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because parts of it are late. There is either not enough evidence of fault or significant injustice in other complaints to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman