Summary: Mr D complains about the Council’s recovery action for Council Tax and Housing Benefit debts. The Ombudsman has found fault with both issues, because of problems with holding recovery and sending communications to the wrong address. But the Council has accepted fault and offered Mr D repayment arrangements that are more generous than usual standard schedules. The Ombudsman’s view is this means there is insufficient injustice to warrant a further remedy.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall refer to as Mr D, complains that:
• when he moved flats within the same building, he told Council Tax. It should have transferred his direct debit.
• When he started work he told the Council. But it continued to pay him Housing Benefit for three months. Mr D says the first he was aware of this was when he started to receive threatening letters from the Council.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. The information I have seen includes:
• the documents Mr D supplied with his complaint and the Council’s responses through its complaints procedure;
• the information from Council Tax and Housing Benefits the Council sent me.
5. I have also discussed the complaint with Mr D. I sent my draft decision to Mr D and the Council and invited their comments.

Back to top

What I found

6. Council Tax is a tax made on domestic properties. Councils issue one bill to each household. Residents of dwellings, including tenants, are usually liable for Council Tax from the date they moved into the property.

Housing Benefit

7. Housing Benefit is a means tested benefit payable to people on a low income to help them pay their rent.
8. Housing Benefit may be overpaid if the Council decides it made payments the claimant was not entitled to. Overpayments are usually recoverable, even if they were caused by an innocent mistake by the claimant. Overpayments are not recoverable, only if the overpayment happened because of the Council’s error and the claimant could not reasonably have known they were being overpaid.

What happened

Council Tax

9. In December 2015 Mr D moved from a ground floor to first floor flat in the same building. He contacted the Council in March 2016 asking it to transfer his Council Tax liability. The Council transferred liability. It also cancelled Mr D’s direct debit for his old account.
10. The Council says it sent a new bill and, after it received no payments, enforcement letters, to Mr D’s new address. Mr D says he did not receive those letters.
11. In October 2016 Mr D began contacting the Council about the Council Tax. The Council made enquiries over the next months. In September 2017 it wrote to Mr D advising that it had removed all recovery action and made an instalment plan for that debt.
12. In January 2018 the Council checked the Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) records and noted Mr D had started work in October 2017. This meant it had made him an award of council tax reduction for weeks when he was not entitled to it. It issued a new bill. Later, Mr D complained.
13. On 28 June 2018 the Council summonsed Mr D for non-payment of his Council Tax debt. Mr D contacted the Council. Its 13 July response apologised and advised it should not have issued the summons, whilst he was complaining.
14. The Council’s 6 July 2018 complaint response provided a summary of Mr D’s arrears, on each year’s Council Tax from 2015/16. The response advised:
• it had transferred his direct debit to his new address and updated his instalment plan;
• it had allowed three years for him to repay the amounts owed from past years;
• him to contact Housing Benefit’s enforcement agents about the overpayment of that benefit.
15. On 31 July Mr D contacted the Council Tax department again, after he received a letter from a debt collection agency. Council Tax responded to Mr D, advising it had removed the summons and reminder letters from his account on 9 July. It also noted the debt collection agency that had written to Mr D was not the one Council Tax used. It suggested the contact might be about Housing Benefit.
16. On 2 August, responding to further contact from Mr D, Council Tax advised it had set up an instalment plan for his Council Tax. It had written to him on 13 July about this.

Housing Benefit

17. Mr D claimed Housing Benefit in September 2017, based on a DWP payment of Job Seekers Allowance contribution based. This benefit is paid for only six months. So the Council set a January 2018 review date for its payment of Housing Benefit.
18. On 15 October 2017 Mr D says he telephoned ‘benefits’ to tell it he was starting work and would no longer be visiting the job-centre. Mr D says he did not look at his bank account in the months after starting work. He knew his lower wages meant that, at first, his account would be overdrawn.
19. On 12 January 2018 the Council carried out its review; checking the DWP records. Those records showed it had stopped paying Mr D Job-seekers’ Allowance in October 2017. The Council cancelled Mr D’s Housing Benefit claim back to 23 October 2017. This created an overpayment. It wrote to Mr D about this
20. On 18 January 2018 Mr D contacted the Council about the Housing Benefit overpayment letter. The Council responded on 25 January. Mr D responded to this letter on 7 February and again on 3 March.
21. The Council sent reminder letters to Mr D about the overpayment on 26 January and 23 February.
22. On 30 May the Council referred the overpayment debt to its enforcement agents. They contacted Mr D in July.
23. Mr D complained to the Council about Housing Benefit continuing to pay him, despite him telling it he had started work. Its 6 August response advised it had checked its Housing Benefit records and could find no record of a telephone call from him. But it advised him it was prepared to recall the debt from its enforcement agent and accept a repayment of £5:00 per week. That was below the (national) standard rate of £11:00 per week. It seems the Council sent this email to the wrong address.
24. When Mr D did not respond to the Council’s 6 August email, it took a hold off recovery action. In September the enforcement agents wrote to Mr D. Mr D complained.
25. The Council’s 26 September complaint response advised it had listened to recordings of all Mr D’s contacts with it from September and October 2017. And he did not inform it he was due to start work. But it noted that it had sent the 6 August email to the wrong address. It apologised for that fault and the distress it might have caused. But its view was the matter was resolved, as it had withdrawn the debt from its enforcement agents and set up a £5:00 per week repayment schedule, due to start on 22 October 2018.

Analysis

Council Tax

26. The Council has apologised for not following best practice and transferring Mr D’s direct debit. But equally, Mr D had some responsibility to note he was not making payments towards his Council Tax.
27. The Council has agreed a three-year repayment programme for what Mr D owes over multiple years. That type of repayment programme is longer than councils usually agree. And the Council seems to have done it without asking Mr D for a breakdown of his finances. My view is those actions are a more than adequate response for any error by the Council.

Housing Benefit

28. The Council says it can find no record of Mr D telling it about starting work. It seems likely Mr D told the DWP; perhaps expecting the DWP to tell Housing Benefit.
29. I can see no evidence in the Council’s records of the DWP advising it that it had stopped paying Job-seeker’s Allowance. So I cannot fault the Council for continuing to pay Mr D until it conducted its review.
30. Mr D does not seem to have directly responded to the reminder letters the Council sent in January and February. But he did send the letters in February and March, he says the Council did not respond to. I would have expected the Council to have responded, perhaps through its complaints procedure, before sending the debt to its enforcement agents. My view is that lack of a response is fault.
31. Later the Council did respond to Mr D’s complaint, after further contact. But it sent its response to a wrong email address. That was fault. But the Council did agree to set up a repayment schedule that was below the normal rate. Again, it seems to have done this without Mr D needing to provide further details of his finances. My view is that is a suitable remedy for the fault.

Back to top

Final decision

32. My decision is there is evidence of fault by the Council. But the Council’s remedy means there is insufficient remaining injustice to warrant a further remedy. I have completed my investigation.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman