London Borough of Bexley (19 017 859)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 14 Feb 2020
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: Ms X complains about the Council’s enforcement of her Council tax debt and the Council’s loan when she moved house. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about the Council’s enforcement of her Council tax debt and the Council’s loan when she moved house.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant has had an opportunity to comment on the draft decision.,
What I found
- Ms X is in arrears of Council tax and is unhappy that the Council instructed bailiffs to recover the debt.
- The Council has provided details of all payments and Council tax debt which shows that a Council tax debt existed on her property (and former property) and Liability Orders had been obtained which added costs to the overall debt. The Council has a right to instruct bailiffs to recover a debt authorised by the court.
- The Council has now agreed to seek deductions from her Universal Credit or an attachment of earnings to avoid any extra costs form the bailiffs.
- I am satisfied that there is no evidence of fault in the Council’s enforcement of the debt.
- Ms X says that the Council did not assist with a loan when she moved house and a Discretionary Hardship Payment.
- I note that the Council offered her a £2,500 loan when she moved house and it agreed a £50 per month (limited) payment of Discretionary Hardship Payment given her circumstances. I am not persuaded that there is evidence of fault in these actions by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman