South Northamptonshire District Council (20 006 586)

Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax

Decision : Closed after initial enquiries

Decision date : 14 Dec 2020

The Ombudsman's final decision:

Summary: Mr X complained about the Council overcharging him for council tax after it credited a payment to one of his other accounts and failed to refund him. We should not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault which has caused significant injustice to Mr X.

The complaint

  1. Mr X complained about the Council crediting a payment to a different council tax account of his. He says he was informed that he owed £15.99 and paid this before he found out the payment had been credited to the other account. He says the Council is refusing to refund him the payment and the compensation which he says is due for its error.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

  1. 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
  • 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

  1. I have considered all the information which Mr X submitted with his complaint. I have also considered the Council’s response. Mr X has been given an opportunity to comment on a draft copy of my decision.

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What I found

  1. Mr X says he made a payment of £15.99 by bank transfer for a property which he owns. The Council credited this to his home address account which is paid by direct debit. The Council says this was because he did not complete the transfer slip correctly so it could not identify the intended account.
  2. The Council later transferred the credit to his other account but had reduced the direct debit payments on his home account to compensate for the overpayment it received. Mr X asked the Council to refund his overpayment, but it confirmed it had been transferred.
  3. When Mr X made telephone enquires, he was later incorrectly informed that £15.99 was still outstanding on his other account so he made a further payment. Because this was a direct debit account this debit was adjusted lower to allow for the additional payment.
  4. Mr X later demanded a refund of the £15.99 payment plus £30 compensation. The Council declined to pay him because his account direct debits had been lowered and no credit was remaining on the balance. It will not pay him compensation because there is no outstanding refund. The Council explained to him that the original error was created by his payment transfer being incorrectly completed.

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Final decision

  1. We should not investigate this complaint. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault which has caused significant injustice to Mr X.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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