Summary: There was fault by the Council as it accepts the conduct of advisors on telephone calls was unacceptable. The Council’s apology remedies the anxiety caused to Miss X. There is no evidence of fault on the Council Tax owed or the recovery of arrears from her Universal Credit.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Miss X, complains that Council officers were rude to her on the telephone. Miss X complains the Council has not allocated payments made by direct debit to her Council tax account and the Councils recovery of Council Tax arrears from her Universal Credit was not carried out in accordance with the Council’s procedures.
2. Miss X says that she is distressed and anxious, and the Council has taken money from her benefit payments.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. 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

5. I read the papers put in by Miss X.
6. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and any supporting documents it provided.
7. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Telephone calls

8. Miss X complains that Council officers were rude on the telephone. The Council has said that two of the three calls she complained about were investigated at the time in July 2018. The Council wrote to Miss X to say that its investigation concluded that on the first call the officer was polite but terminated the call without justification. The Council concluded the second officer was polite but did not give a clear explanation, did not escalate the call to a manager soon enough, made a number of unprofessional comments and terminated the call without justification. The Council apologised for the poor level of customer service and said that it gave feedback to the advisors.
9. The Council has said that Miss X did not complain about the telephone call in October 2018 at the time. The recording of this call is no longer available so it has no further information other than the notes that say that Miss X was ‘very rude and argumentative’ and the call was ended when she began swearing.
10. The Council has accepted there was fault in the conduct of the advisors during two telephone calls. I cannot reach a conclusion on the third call as there is no evidence to come to a sound decision.
11. Miss X says the Council caused her anxiety and distress because of the way she was spoken to on the telephone. The Council has investigated and already apologised for its poor customer service. I consider that this is a satisfactory remedy to this part of her complaint.

Direct debit payments

12. The Council has said Miss X’s Council Tax for 2018/2019 was £751 with single occupancy discount. Miss X received £134 in Council tax support and made payments totalling £403. As Miss X did not pay instalments on time, the Council added on summons costs of £69. This left an outstanding amount of £282.
13. In response to Miss X’s official complaint the Council said if she could provide evidence (receipts/bank statements) of missing payments they would be credited to her account and the summons costs removed.
14. The Council arranged a Special Payment Arrangement (SPA) but as Miss X did not keep up the payments the Council arranged to recover the outstanding balance of £282 from Miss X’s Universal Credit.
15. I asked Miss X if she had evidence that she had paid or received benefits towards the £282. Miss X said to me that she has no proof as she has changed bank accounts. Without any proof, as the Council has no record of these payments, there is no evidence of any fault by the Council on this point.
16. Miss X has said she was told on the telephone that the Council would reduce her Council Tax as she was ill. I can see no evidence of this in the Council’s files and as the Council no longer has the call recordings, after 2 years, I can find no evidence of fault.

Recovery of Arrears

17. The Council has sent me its procedure on recovery of debts from Universal Credit. The procedure says that payments should be checked that they are allocated to the correct year, which I can see has happened from the summaries the Council sent. It also says to consider the impact on payments being made on a SPA and to write off balances on less than costs. Neither of these applied in Miss X’s case.
18. I can see no evidence the Council did not follow the correct procedure when collecting arrears from Miss X’s Universal Credit payments.

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Final decision

19. I have completed my investigation of this complaint. There was fault by the Council which caused injustice to Miss X. I am satisfied the Council has taken action to remedy that injustice. This complaint is upheld.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman