Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint that the Council has failed to refund council tax of £17.87. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice. In addition, it is unlikely he could add to the Council’s response.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, complains that she accidently made two council tax payments of £17.87 and the Council will not make a refund.

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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 an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council.

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

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How I considered this complaint

3. I read the complaint and the Council’s responses. I considered comments Ms X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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What I found

What happened

4. The Council sent a final council tax bill for £17.81. Ms X says she accidently paid it twice, once by paypoint and once by bank card. Ms X says she made the second payment because she could not see the first payment on her council tax account. She asked the Council for a refund.
5. The Council initially said it would make a refund. But, when it did further checks it could only find a record of receiving one payment. It asked Ms X to provide further evidence but the evidence she provided was for the card payment the Council had received. The Council sent Ms X a screenshot of the council tax database which showed that only one payment for £17.87 had been received. The Council apologised for the poor customer service in terms of responding to Ms X but it declined to issue a refund because it had no record of receiving two payments. It said it would search again if Ms X provided evidence of the other payment.
6. Ms X continues to assert she made two payments. Ms X does not have a receipt for the paypoint payment but believes the evidence she submitted proves she made two payments.

Assessment

7. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The Council responding appropriately by checking its records, inviting Ms X to send evidence of both payments and showing Ms X a screenshot of the council tax database to show it has only received one payment of £17.87. These are all steps I would expect it to take to consider a report of a dual payment. In the absence of any evidence of a duplicate payment then there is no suggestion of fault in the Council’s decision not to make a refund. However, the Council will check again if Ms X sends evidence of the second payment (for example, if Ms X is able to send the paypoint receipt).
8. In addition, the Council has checked all its systems and databases and can find no record of receiving two payments. The Council has already done what we would ask it to do if we started an investigation so it unlikely an investigation would lead to an investigation.
9. I also will not start an investigation because a dispute over £17.87 does not represent sufficient injustice to warrant an investigation. To pursue this issue further would require some sort of forensic financial investigation and a dispute over £17.87 does not justify such a step. And, while Ms X says she has experienced poor customer service, this still does not represent sufficient injustice to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

10. I will not start an investigation because there is insufficient evidence of fault and injustice. In addition, it is unlikely an investigation would add to the Council’s response.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman