Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax arrears because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and because the problem has been resolved.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complains about the way the Council handled his council tax. He says it has asked him to provide information he has already provided, made it hard to set up a direct debit, and failed to cancel the fines as promised.

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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 problem has been resolved.

(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 a letter the Council sent to Mr X cancelling the arrears. I invited Mr X to comment on a draft of this decision.

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What I found

Council tax discounts

4. People who live alone are entitled to a 25% council tax discount. The law says councils must take reasonable steps to find out if people are entitled to a discount. Councils often do this by carrying out reviews to check on-going entitlement.
5. If someone does not pay their council tax as billed the Council will serve a court summons and add costs.

What happened

6. Mr X was getting the single person discount. The Council sent a review form in June 2019 and a reminder in August. Mr X says he sent an on-line form confirming he still lived alone. The Council did not receive this form.
7. The Council removed the discount from April 2018 because it had not received a response to the review. It issued a new bill in October 2019 to reflect the loss of the discount. Mr X did not pay the arrears so the Council issued a court summons in March 2020 and charged costs. In April the court case was adjourned due to COVID-19.
8. In response to complaints from Mr X the Council confirmed it did not receive any response from him about the review. It offered to remove the summons and the costs if Mr X confirmed he was still living alone. It apologised because Mr X had had trouble setting up a direct debit. It accepted Mr X had sent an email with his bank details but said it needed him to complete a direct debit mandate or go through the set-up process by phone.
9. Mr X set-up the direct debit on 3 December. During a recent phone call with the Council he confirmed he has continued to live alone. The Council also checked the electoral register which showed that nobody else is registered to vote at his address. In December the Council wrote to Mr X to explain it had reinstated the discount from April 218 and would issue a new bill. It said it had withdrawn the summons and cancelled all the costs. It apologised for any inconvenience.

Assessment

10. I will not start an investigation for the following reasons.
11. The problem has been resolved. The Council has reinstated the discount, withdrawn the summons and cancelled all the costs. Mr X will not pay any additional money and the matter did not proceed to court. The Council has also set-up the direct debit.
12. In addition, there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. I do not know why the Council did not receive the form from Mr X but it was entitled to review the discount. When it became apparent the Council had not received the reply, Mr X could have re-sent the information confirming his entitlement to the discount. The Council did not cancel the costs, as offered in October, because Mr X did not confirm entitlement to the discount. In addition, in October, the Council explained what Mr X needed to do to set-up the direct debit but he did not do this until 3 December. Mr X has also complained that the Council served a summons at the start of lockdown but the case was adjourned in April and Mr X could have resolved the problem in March by re-confirming his entitlement to the discount.

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Final decision

13. I will not start an investigation because the problem has been resolved and there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman