Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council is charging him too much council tax and has passed his account to enforcement agents. This is because there is no indication of fault by the Council and it has put a hold on enforcement action to allow Mr X to make a payment arrangement.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mr X, complains the Council has not reduced his council tax bill even though his mother, who lives with him, is exempt from council tax. Mr X also complains about the Council passing his account to enforcement agents.

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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’. 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 it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I have considered what Mr X said in his complaint and background information the Council has sent to me. I have written to Mr X with my draft decision and given him an opportunity to comment.

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What I found

4. Mr X complains that the Council is expecting him to pay full council tax even though Mr X’s mother lives with him and is exempt from paying council tax due to her having Alzheimer’s disease. Mr X complains the Council has passed the account to its enforcement agents.
5. Mr X wants the Council to amend his bill accordingly and stop enforcement action.
6. The Council advised Mr X that the exemption for Mr X’s mother does not affect the total amount of council tax payable. There is no change to the bill because there are other adults in the property who are not disregarded for council tax purposes.
7. In response to our enquiries about the complaint, the Council confirms the enforcement action for 2019/20 has been placed on hold and that it is willing to withdraw this action to allow Mr X to make a viable payment arrangement.

Assessment

8. The Council explains why there is no change to Mr X’s council tax bill and there is no indication that it has acted with fault in respect of this.
9. The Council has put enforcement action on hold to allow Mr X to make a payment arrangement.
10. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

11. My decision is that the Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no indication of fault by the Council and it has agreed to put enforcement action on hold, The Ombudsman can achieve no more than this.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman