Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaints about how he was spoken to in a telephone call to the Council and about the level of council tax the Council says he owes. This is because we cannot add to what the Council has already said or achieve the outcome Mr X seeks.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council is charging him council tax for a period when he was an asylum seeker in the UK and unable to work. Mr X also complains a staff member at the Council was patronising and racist towards him in a telephone call about the council tax bill.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
3. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. The telephone call Mr X complains about was not recorded and in the absence of any other independent corroborating evidence, we are not able to determine what took place during that call. We also cannot achieve the outcome Mr X seeks which is for the staff member to be sacked, as we can play no part in any staff disciplinary matters.
7. The Council has told me it is considering Mr X’s situation in respect of whether to reduce the council tax bill it has issued to him, using its discretionary powers to do so. We cannot add to this, and Mr X will have the right to appeal against any decision the Council makes on this, to the Valuation Tribunal.
8. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we cannot add to what the Council has said or achieve the outcome Mr X seeks.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman