Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision to recover council tax support overpayments. That is because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr Y complained on behalf of his parents, Mr and Mrs X, about the Council’s decision to recover Council Tax Support overpayments it had made to them since 2014. He said the Council was responsible for the error in the overpayments as it did not include information about his parent’s pensions when it calculated their Council Tax Support. He said that English was not his parents first language therefore they did not realise their Council Tax bill was incorrect.
2. Mr and Mrs X want the Council to reverse its decision to recover the overpayments.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. 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)
4. 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. At the start of 2020, the Council identified it had not included Mr and Mrs X’s pensions in its calculations for their Council Tax Support. That meant the Council had applied more Council Tax Support to Mr and Mrs X’s Council Tax Bill since 2014 than they were entitled to receive. The Council decided to recover the Council Tax overpayments. Mr Y complained to the Council.
8. In the Council’s complaint response, it accepted it was at fault when it first calculated the Council Tax Support. It considered Mr Y’s reasons for why it should waive its decision to recover the overpayments. However, it said that it had decided to recover the money because it had sent Mr and Mrs X twelve notification letters between 2014 and 2019 showing what income the Council had used to calculate their Council Tax Support. It said they should have been aware that their Council Tax Support claim had been assessed incorrectly.
9. In respect of Mr Y’s complaint that English was not his parents first language, the Council confirmed it had had correspondence with Mr and Mrs Y in 2014, and they had not asked for interpreter services.
10. Although Mr and Mrs X disagree with the Council’s decision, we cannot question the Council’s decision where there is no evidence of fault in how it was reached. The Council has considered information provided by Mr Y, its policy and relevant legislation. Therefore, there is insufficient evidence of fault in how the Council made its decision to recover the overpayments to justify further investigation.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr and Mrs X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify our investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman