Summary: Ms X complains about the Council’s failure to collect her council tax direct debit payments. We will not investigate the complaint because our investigation will not add to that already carried out by the Council. It is from her bank that Ms X needs to obtain the relevant information to pass to the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Ms X, says the Council has failed to collect her council tax payments even though she has a direct debit set up. As a result, the Council is taking her to court for non-payment and has added additional charges to her account. She wants the Council to remove these charges and to pay for a counsellor as the matter has exacerbated her health problems.

Back to top

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 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, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

3. In considering the complaint I reviewed the information provided by Ms X and the Council. I gave Ms X the opportunity to comment on my draft decision.

Back to top

What I found

4. Ms X complained to the Council that it had failed to take her council tax direct debit payments from her bank which had led to enforcement action being taken against her for non-payment. The Council responded at Stage 1 of its complaints procedure to explain its records showed it had attempted to collect the payments but her bank had not honoured them.
5. Ms X told the Council it was at fault and asked for her complaint to be reviewed at Stage 2. The Council asked Ms X to provide evidence from her bank to support her claim so it could consider matters at Stage 2. It told her it could not contact her bank directly for the information but that it would place a hold on her account for three weeks to enable her to provide it.
6. Ms X sent in a statement from her bank which showed 11 transactions between April 2017 and September 2019, none of which were direct debit payments. The Council wrote to her to point this out and to query why the three successful direct debit payments it had taken in December 2017, December 2018 and January 2019 were not detailed on the statement. It advised her to provide a letter from her bank explaining this or to provide the full bank statement showing all the transactions.
7. Ms X contacted the Council to say she would not be providing any further evidence from her bank because it was the Council who had control of the direct debit.
8. Later, Ms X made a further complaint to the Council about the same matter and about a number of new issues. The Council addressed the new issues at Stage 1 but told Ms X that as there was no new information or evidence about the direct debit issue, the matter would not be reviewed at Stage 2.
9. Dissatisfied with the Council’s response to the direct debit issue, Ms X complained to us. 

Assessment

10. The Council has highlighted anomalies with the information Ms X has provided from her bank. It is open to her to either obtain a letter from the bank to explain these or to provide a full copy of her bank statement. The information Ms X has provided so far is incomplete and cannot be used to show whether or not the Council was at fault for the payments not being received.
11. Any investigation we carried out would not add to that already undertaken by the Council and if Ms X wishes to pursue the matter further she can provide the Council with the required bank information.

Back to top

Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because our investigation will not add to that already carried out by the Council. It is from her bank that Ms X needs to obtain the relevant information to pass to the Council.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman