Summary: Mr X complained the Council failed to put in place reasonable adjustments, due to his disability, to assist him in accessing and paying his Council Tax. We found fault with the Council. The Council agreed to our recommendation to write-off the balance of £270.29 owed for the Council Tax bill to address the distress, frustration and inconvenience caused and to provide training to staff about considering and implementing reasonable adjustment requests.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council made him liable for Council Tax for an incorrect period of time.
2. Mr X complained the Council failed to put in place reasonable adjustments to help him access his Council Tax bill. Mr X says he needed reasonable adjustments because of his disabilities and not having a device that can easily navigate the Council’s online systems.
3. Mr X says he has been complaining to the Council since November 2021 without resolution which has caused him inconvenience, distress and frustration. Mr X also complained the Council refused to take a formal complaint over the telephone.

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What I have investigated

4. I have investigated Mr X’s complaint about the lack of reasonable adjustments by the Council and the inconvenience, frustration and distress managing his complaint with the Council has caused him.
5. I have not investigated Mr X’s complaint about the Council Tax liability time period. I have explained my reasons in the section titled “Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate”.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

6. 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’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
7. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
8. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone can appeal to a tribunal or court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to appeal or go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a)(c), as amended)
9. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

10. I have considered all the information Mr X provided and discussed this complaint with him.
11. Mr X and the Council had opportunity to comment on my draft decision before I reached my final decision.

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What I found

Reasonable Adjustments

12. The Equality Act 2010 says an individual or organisation that provides a service to the public, such as councils, must not treat someone worse just because of one or more “protected characteristics”. Protected characteristics include people with disabilities.
13. When the duty arises, service providers are under a positive and proactive duty to take steps to remove or prevent obstacles to accessing their service. If the adjustments are reasonable, they must make them.
14. If a policy of practice presents a barrier to a person with a disability, a public body should show flexibility about how it provides this service to remove this barrier.
15. If a person believes they have been discriminated against because of the actions of a service provider, they may make a claim for damages in county court. However, government guidance says:

“Defending or taking a claim in court can be lengthy, expensive and draining. It can also have a damaging impact on the reputation of an organisation. It is likely to be in everyone’s interest to try to put things right before a claim is made to a court.”

Council policy on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

16. The Council’s policy outlines it has a legal duty under Section 149 of the Equality Act to ensure it considers the needs of all individuals when delivering its service.
17. The Council says it must minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristic and to take steps to meet the needs of people with certain protected characteristics.
18. The Council says it commits to making reasonable adjustments where needed.

Council’s complaints procedure

19. The Council’s website details how a person may make a complaint to it. On the website, the Council says a person can make a complaint by using its online complaint form, by contacting it over telephone or in writing.
20. The Council says it will not treat an initial contact as a complaint when it is a first request from a person for a service. The Council says it must be given opportunity to provide the service before it lodges a complaint.
21. The Council will first try to resolve a complaint informally within 24-hours of contact. If a Council cannot resolve a matter within 24 hours it will progress to its formal complaints procedure.
22. On receiving a formal complaint, the Council will provide a response at Stage 1 of its complaints process within 10 working days.
23. If a person does not accept the resolution at Stage 1 of its complaints process they can appeal the decision and progress to Stage 2 of the complaints process. The Council says it will provide a Stage 2 complaints response within 30 working days of receipt of a request.

Ombudsman Guidance on Remedies

24. We expect bodies in jurisdiction to treat people fairly and with respect, and not to expose the public to unnecessary distress, harm or risk as a result of their actions or inactions. Such injustice cannot generally be remedied by a payment, so we usually seek a symbolic amount to acknowledge the impact of fault on the complainant. The amount depends on the circumstances of the case.
25. When we assess distress, we consider the complainant’s individual circumstances (such as their state of health and age). In reaching a view on remedy we will consider all the circumstances including the length of time involved and whether the person affected is vulnerable and affected by distress more.
26. A remedy payment for distress is often a moderate sum of between £100 and £300.

What happened

27. The Council produced a Council Tax bill holding Mr X liable for a longer period than he was responsible. The Council produced this bill based on information the previous tenant of the property provided to it.
28. On 1 November 2021, Mr X contacted the Council to query the Council Tax liability period. The Council gave Mr X an email address to provide his information.
29. Mr X emailed the Council on 2 November 2021 and provided evidence of his period of liability for the property. The Council responded to advise it could not process Mr X’s evidence and asked him to post the evidence or use its website to provide documents.
30. Mr X responded to the Council to advise he could not print the documents at home and asked why it could not accept his evidence. The Council did not respond to Mr X’s email.
31. Mr X tried to use the Council’s website to provide evidence but could not provide information in this manner. Mr X called the Council to complain. The Council told Mr X he could not make a complaint over the telephone and directed him to its online web-form.
32. Mr X complained to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (the Ombudsman) in December 2021 about the Council refusing to accept his complaint or allow him to complain by email.
33. The Ombudsman liaised with the Council who advised it had not logged Mr X’s contact as a formal complaint. The Council logged Mr X’s complaint on 8 February 2022. The Council also wrote to Mr X on 9 February 2022 asking him to provide information through its online web-form.
34. Mr X responded to the Council to advise he is disabled and needs help from the Council as he cannot use the Council’s online web-form.
35. The Council provided its Stage 1 complaint response on 16 February 2022. The Council said it could not access the information Mr X provided in November 2022 but had now updated Mr X’s Council Tax liability for the correct period. The Council promised to send a bill electronically to Mr X.
36. On 17 February 2022, Mr X responded to the Council’s Stage 1 complaint response. Mr X said he agreed with the liability period but said the Council had not made reasonable adjustments for him and refused to let him make a complaint over the telephone. The Council responded to advise it could not discuss the complaint with Mr X. Mr X contacted the Ombudsman who contacted the Council on his behalf. The Council told the Ombudsman on 21 February 2022 it would provide a Stage 2 response to Mr X.
37. The Council provided a Stage 2 complaint response on 31 March 2022. The Council said it had now resolved Mr X’s complaint about Council Tax Liability and apologised for failing to take his complaint over the telephone.
38. On 15 June 2022, Mr X contacted the Ombudsman to advise the Council had emailed him with a link to its website to access his Council Tax bill rather than as an attachment.
39. The Ombudsman asked the Council on 29 June 2022 to send an email to Mr X with his Council Tax bill as Mr X had made it clear he could not use the Council’s website.
40. The Council emailed Mr X on 4 July 2022 providing him with a link to its website to access his Council Tax bill.
41. Following further contact between the Council and the Ombudsman the Council sent Mr X a copy of his Council Tax bill as an email attachment on 8 July 2022. This bill included details of how Mr X could pay his Council Tax bill including a phone number to an automated phone line.
42. Mr X contacted the Council on 19 July 2022 to ask if it could phone him to take payment for the Council Tax bill because he struggled with automated phone lines. The Ombudsman also asked the Council to call Mr X on 26 July 2022.
43. On 22 August 2022, the Council emailed Mr X to provide him with a contact number for its automated payment line to pay for his Council Tax. The Council did not call Mr X as requested.
44. The Council issued a Summons Notice for the unpaid Council Tax bill to Mr X in September 2022 followed by notice of a Court hearing.

Analysis

Reasonable adjustments

45. The Council has a duty to consider reasonable adjustments for a person with a disability to remove any obstacles to access of their service. If an adjustment request is reasonable, the Council must make this adjustment.
46. When Mr X first contacted the Council at the start of November 2021, it would not have been aware of what reasonable adjustments Mr X would have needed. In the first instance, the Council gave Mr X an email address to provide his evidence and when it could not access this information it directed Mr X to its online web-form. At this point, neither the Council, nor Mr X, were aware that Mr X would have difficulties using the Council’s website. I do not find fault at this point.
47. Following this initial contact, Mr X tried to complain to the Council over the telephone. The Council refused to accept the complaint over the telephone. This was fault by the Council. The Council’s complaints procedure specifically outlines that it will accept complaints over the telephone.
48. Part of Mr X’s complaint was that he could not use the Council’s web-form because of his disability. Mr X had also already told the Council he did not have the means to print documents at home to contact the Council by post.
49. The Council directing Mr X to its online web-form to make a complaint which partially related to being unable to use the Council’s website was fault. This fault effectively denied Mr X access to the Council’s complaint service. The Council was aware Mr X could not print and post a complaint from previous contacts and he was complaining about being unable to use the website.
50. Following contact with the Ombudsman in February 2022, the Council failed to make reasonable adjustments for Mr X when it contacted him on 9 February 2022 to request he provides information using its online web-form. The Council was aware of Mr X’s issues. Failure to make a reasonable adjustment for Mr X was fault.
51. The Council repeated this same fault on two further occasions on 15 June 2022 and 4 July 2022. In both of these contacts the Council continued to direct Mr X to its website through links rather than providing Mr X with the information by email according to his reasonable adjustment request. This was continued fault by the Council.
52. While the Council provided Mr X with the requested information by email on 9 July 2022, it has since failed to make a further reasonable adjustment request to contact Mr X by telephone. The Council instead sent Mr X a contact number to phone its automated phone line.
53. To the date of this decision statement, the Council has not phoned Mr X to get payment for his Council Tax bill in line with a reasonable adjustment request. This is nearly two months on from the date of the request. This was fault. Despite failing to make a reasonable adjustment for Mr X to pay for his Council Tax, the Council has issued a Summons Notice for the outstanding balance. While the Council is entitled to issue a Summons Notice for unpaid Council Tax, failure to make a reasonable adjustment in this instance undermines this Summons Notice. This Summons Notice has caused Mr X distress.
54. The Council has repeatedly failed to provide reasonable adjustments for Mr X from November 2021 until September 2022. Mr X’s requests for adjustments fall in line with the Equality Act and are reasonable. The Council had a duty to meet these reasonable adjustments but failed to do so. The Council’s failure to meet Mr X’s reasonable adjustments have caused him distress, frustration and inconvenience.

Complaint handling

55. As outlined in paragraph 47, the Council’s refusal to accept Mr X’s complaint over the telephone was fault as it failed to follow its complaints procedure. This fault delayed the Council’s acceptance of Mr X’s complaint by two months with the Ombudsman having to request consideration of Mr X’s complaint with the Council.
56. The Council accepted Mr X’s complaint on 8 February 2022 and provided its Stage 1 complaint response on 16 February 2022. The Council provided this Stage 1 complaint response within its policy timescales, and I do not find fault.
57. When Mr X tried to dispute the Stage 1 complaint response, the Council refused to accept the dispute. Mr X had to again use the Ombudsman to contact the Council on his behalf to move his complaint through the complaints process. A member of the public should not need to use the Ombudsman to raise a complaint with the Council or escalate a complaint through the Council’s complaints procedure. This was fault.

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Agreed action

58. Within one month of the Ombudsman’s final decision the Council should:
• Terminate the Summons Notice sent to Mr X and remove any associated charges related to this Summons Notice.
• Write-off the balance owed on Mr X’s Council Tax account of £270.29 to address the inconvenience, frustration and distress he has experienced through the Council’s failure to make reasonable adjustments and failure of the Council to follow its complaints procedure.
59. Within three months of the Ombudsman’s final decision the Council should:
• Provide training to staff about considering and implementing reasonable adjustment requests.

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Final decision

60. There was fault leading to injustice. As the Council accepted my recommendations I have completed my investigation as I consider that a suitable remedy.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

61. I have not investigated Mr X’s complaint about the Council Tax billing liability period. This is because the Council billed Mr X for the correct period in February 2022 as agreed by Mr X. Further investigation by the Ombudsman on this point would not result in any further outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman