Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the complainant’s application for a council tax discount. This is because the Council has provided a fair response and there is not enough remaining injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mrs X, complains about the way the Council handled her application for a reduction in her council tax.

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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:

• the Council has provided a fair response, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(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 Mrs X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Council tax discount – disability

4. The Council will reduce someone’s council tax by one band if they have a room which is solely used to meet the needs of someone with a disability.

Council tax reduction

5. Council tax reduction (CTR) is a means tested benefit which helps people pay their council tax.

What happened

6. Mrs X was awarded a disability benefit in May 2019. The award letter said she might be entitled to a reduction in her council tax. Mrs X rang the Council in July. The Council advised her to apply for CTR. Mrs X did an on-line calculation and found out her income was too high to qualify for CTR.
7. Mrs X received a special bed in December 2019. She uses the bed to sleep in the lounge.
8. Mrs X contacted the Council in January. The Council explained there were two reduction schemes. Mrs X then applied for the disability reduction scheme. There were then delays, partly due to COVID-19, in arranging an inspection to see if Mrs X qualified for the discount. Mrs X says an officer was rude and implied she was making a fraudulent claim. Mrs X also says there were delays by the Council in progressing the application and answering emails.
9. In September the Council awarded the disability discount from April and in November it awarded the discount from December 2019. It awarded it from December because that is the date Mrs X received the special bed. The Council told her she had two months to appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if she thought the discount should apply from an earlier date. The Council explained the disability benefit is not a passport to the discount. The Council added a credit to Mrs X’s council tax to reflect the discount.
10. The Council apologised for the way it had handled her case. It accepted it had been slow to answer some emails and it apologised because the officer had upset her. It said the officer was on sick leave and would be spoken to when he returned. The Council said it should not have invited her to apply for CTR in July and it would remind call centre staff of the different ways council tax can be reduced.
11. Mrs X is happy the Council awarded the discount but is dissatisfied with how long it took to make and implement the decision. She says the Council’s actions caused a lot of stress and took up a lot of time. Mrs X wants the Council held to account.

Assessment

12. The Council took a long time to find out what discount Mrs X could apply for and then process that application. This would have caused understandable stress and frustration. But, I will not start an investigation because the Council has provided a fair response. It has apologised for the delays in dealing with her application and for not signposting her to the disability discount in July. And it will speak to the officer about his conduct. Once the apology is taken into account for the poor handling of the case, there is not enough remaining injustice to require an investigation. Even if we started an investigation there is nothing more we would ask the Council to do, especially as the discount has been awarded and the council tax reduced.

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Final decision

13. I will not start an investigation because the Council has provided a fair remedy and there is not enough remaining injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman