Summary: Mr X complains that a Council officer was rude and unhelpful regarding the payment of council tax. We will not investigate this complaint because the alleged injustice does not cause such significant personal injustice as to warrant investigation.

The complaint

2. Mr X complains that a Council officer was rude and unhelpful regarding the payment of council tax.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, 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

4. I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant has commented on the draft decision.

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What I found

5. Mr X telephoned the Council in October 2020 to set up a direct debit for Council tax payment. He says the officer was rude and unhelpful. The Council denies the officer was rude and says that the officer offered to help set up a direct debit for Mr X.
6. The Ombudsman cannot reach any conclusion as to whether or not the officer was rude because he was not present at the call.
7. Mr X says that the bill was then issued without a discount. The Council apologised for this error which was due to information provided by the landlord. The Council corrected the bill and says that Mr X did not make any excessive payment as a result of the original bill.
8. We will not investigate this complaint because it would not be possible to reach a satisfactory conclusion based on the evidence that would be available. The bill itself was corrected so that any injustice caused would not be sufficient to warrant investigation. Mr X would have been able to set aside any payment of Council tax until the direct debit was set up.

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Final decision

9. I do not intend to investigate this complaint because the injustice does not warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman