Summary: We will not investigate this complaint concerning the Council’s handling of Mr X’s council tax account. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation and it is too late to investigate now matters relating to council tax from earlier years.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s use of a £60 credit of council tax from his 2020/2021 bill to reduce his council tax arrears from an earlier year and about the percentage of the single person discount.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a @council/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X complained to the Council about the percentage rate of the single person discount to a single person’s council tax bill and about its actions in using an overpayment he had made for his 2020/2021 council tax bill to reduce outstanding arrears for an earlier year.
7. The Council properly explained to Mr X that the single person discount rate is set by national government and not by individual councils so it has no discretion to change it. It also explained that while it understood he would have rather had his overpayment credited against next year’s bill, in accordance with standard procedure it was allocated to his oldest year’s arrears, in this case 2015/2016.
8. It also provided a response and additional information about more recently raised council tax issues and told Mr X that it could look into providing further support for him and to agreeing a suitable payment arrangement to clear his outstanding arrears.
9. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 2 applies to Mr X’s dispute about arrears from 2015/2016 which the Council addressed in 2018. We will not investigate these past events because we would reasonably have expected Mr X to have complained to us about them at the time.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X to warrant an investigation and it is too late to investigate now matters relating to council tax from earlier years.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman