Summary: Mr X complains about the way the Council dealt with his wife’s council tax appeal request. We will not investigate this complaint because the Council has apologised and any injustice caused is speculative.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about the way the Council dealt with his wife’s council tax appeal request.

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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 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)

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions a council has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)
5. The Social Entitlement Chamber (also known as the Social Security Appeal Tribunal) is a tribunal that considers housing benefit appeals. (The Social Entitlement Chamber of the First Tier Tribunal)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I have considered the comments of the complainant and the Council and the complainant was given an opportunity to comment on the draft decision.

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What I found

7. The Council says they received Mr X’s wife’s request for a council tax review in December 2020. The Council wrote to him on 22 January 2021 to advise that the Council was unable to deal with the request at that time. The Council confirmed on 3 February that the decision (not to award council tax support) would not be changed.
8. The Council said that they were willing to pass the matter to the tribunal if Ms X explained the reasons for her disagreement with the decision.
9. Any dispute about entitlement to council tax support is a matter for the Valuation Tribunal. The tribunal is an expert body and their decisions are binding on the Council. I see no reason why an appeal could not be made in this case.
10. The Council apologised for the unacceptable delay in dealing with the review request. The Ombudsman would consider this response to be a reasonable settlement of the complaint. If the complainants appeal successfully to the Valuation Tribunal then Mr X may make a further complaint to this office to consider whether there was any significant injustice caused by the delay.

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Final decision

11. I do not intend to investigate this complaint because the matter has been remedied and any further injustice is speculative at this point.
     

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman