Summary: Miss K complains the Council has not taken account of payments she made for council tax. She says it has not made reasonable adjustments to help her claim a council tax reduction and other discounts. The Ombudsman found no fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant whom I shall refer to as Miss K, complains that the Council has failed to consider council tax payments she made. She says she has evidence she paid and that the Council has not investigated this. She also complains the Council has not considered reasonable adjustments and is not assisting her to make a new claim for a council tax reduction and a disabled band reduction.
2. Miss K has also complained about the Council’s council tax reduction and council tax discount decisions.

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What I have investigated

3. I have investigated Miss K’s complaint that the Council has not applied payments she made to her account. I have also investigated her complaint that the Council has failed to apply reasonable adjustments in view of her disability.
4. In paragraphs 20-24 I have explained the reasons I have not investigated parts of the complaints Miss K has raised

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. 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).
6. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I have considered the complaint and the copy correspondence provided by the complainant. I have made enquiries of the Council and considered the comments and documents the Council provided. I have also invited the complainant to comment on my draft decision.

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What I found

8. The Council sent a summons in January 2019 to Miss K regarding council tax arrears for 2017/18 and 2018/19.
9. Miss K complained that she had paid and that she had provided receipts to show this. She said the Council had only just sent her a statement of her accounts and payments in December 2018. She said the Council had advised her to claim a council tax reduction but it had not taken account of her disability. She said she had dyslexia and visual difficulties. She did not have a computer. She said the Council should apply reasonable adjustments to assist her in making a claim for a council tax reduction and disabled band relief.
10. The Council attended the liability order hearing and met Miss K’s representative who also attended. It agreed to adjourn the hearing as Miss K said she could provide evidence she had paid.
11. The Council wrote to Miss K’s representative and confirmed that he had agreed to send it copies of payment receipts. The Council also wrote to Miss K and confirmed it had provided a list of payments received in November 2018 and had sent two copies of list in December 2018. It said she must provide copies of receipts so that it could check its records. It said not received a claim from her for a council tax reduction, or disabled band relief. It had sent her a form for this
12. Miss K complained to the Ombudsman that the Council failed to send her a statement of account showing her payments until December 2018. She said her representative wanted to show the Council her receipts at court, but the Council’s representative would not take these. She said she wanted to claim council tax reduction, and disabled council tax band relief but the Council had not helped her.
13. The Council has replied to my enquiries and to Miss K’s complaints that it did not receive a request for a statement of account until October 2018, and it replied to this in November 2018. The Council also says it did not receive copies of the receipts that Miss K’s representative said he would send after the liability order hearing. It has received some receipts via the Ombudsman but none of these are “missing payments” as Miss K suggests. The Council explains all these payments have been recorded as received. I note that these payments were allocated to years other than 2018/19 because Miss K has outstanding arrears for other years.

Analysis

14. I have not seen evidence the Council has not investigated Miss K’s claims that it failed to record payments she made. The Council sent Miss K a statement in November 2018. I have not seen evidence that she or her representative requested a statement earlier than October 2018. The Council asked for evidence of payments in November and December 2018 and also in January 2019 at the liability order hearing, but no evidence was received until her complaint to LGO. I have not found fault that the Council failed to investigate as Miss K suggests.
15. The payment receipts Miss K provided to the Ombudsman do show payments made in 2018/19, but the Council has allocated these payments to other, older years. There is no fault in the Council doing this as Miss K has outstanding arrears and has not paid in accordance with the instalments set out in her 2018/19 bill. If a council tax payer does not specify the year they intend the payment to be paid towards, the Council will generally automatically allocate it to the oldest debt. There is no fault here
16. The Council has confirmed it has invited Miss K to claim a council tax reduction by telephone, but she had not done this. It says Miss K has not requested specific reasonable adjustments, but has referred to her difficulties in claiming. The Council has addressed this and made appropriate suggestions to assist her. There is no evidence of fault here.
17. Miss K says the Council did not consider her request for an exceptional hardship payment (EHP) towards her council tax. However, I can see that the Council has explained that it expects a person to claim other available benefits first. As Miss K has not done this it cannot consider an EHP. There is no fault here.
18. Miss K says the Council was wrong to expect her to reclaim disabled band relief or complete a new form because her daughter’s disability has not changed since turned 18. Miss K says she provided evidence of her daughter’s need for an additional room and the Council should accept this. The Council says it has sent Miss K a form to complete and return, but she has not done so. It has explained the reasons why it is reviews claims when a child becomes an adult. I have not seen evidence of fault here.

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Final decision

19. I have not found evidence of fault and so I have completed my investigation and closed the complaint.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

20. I have not investigated the Council’s decision on Miss K’s council tax reduction from 2015 or the Council’s decision to remove a single person discount
21. Miss K has appealed to a Tribunal, the Valuation Tribunal regarding these matters. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended).
22. I have not investigated the complaint Miss K raised about data protection breaches. This is because the Ombudsman has already decided on this matter that Miss K could have appealed to the Information Commissioner’s Officer (ICO).
23. I have not investigated the matters Miss K referred to regarding the liability order court hearing in January 2019. This is because we cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended).
24. I have not investigated Miss K’s complaint that the Council lost documents she sent it in 2017. This issue is a late complaint. 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). I do not consider there are good reasons to investigate this matter.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman