Summary: There was fault by the Council as it did not respond to an official complaint. The Council’s apology remedies the injustice to Miss X. There is no fault in the Council’s response to Miss X’s Council Tax arrears, as it has written off charges and stopped recovery action when made aware of her vulnerability.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Miss X, complains the Council has sent inaccurate demands and resumed deductions from benefits for Council Tax after it agreed to reduce arrears to nil after a stage 1 complaint in July 2021.
2. Miss X also complains the Council has not responded to a stage two complaint.

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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 consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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

5. I read the papers put in by Miss X’s advocate.
6. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and any supporting documents it provided.
7. Miss X, her advocate and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Stage 2 complaint

8. There is evidence the Council received a stage 2 complaint in September 2021. The Council has confirmed that it has not replied to Miss X. This is fault. However, as her complaint is now with the Ombudsman I am not convinced this has caused significant injustice to Miss X. I do consider that the Council should apologise for not responding to her stage 2 complaint of September 2021.

Benefits write off

9. The Council said in a letter dated 9 July 2021 that it would write off Miss X’s benefit arrears (£1025) from 13 August 2019 to 31 March 2021. But, Miss X would need to pay the Council tax due (£87) from 1 April 2021 until 31 March 2022. The letter said that ‘please note this amount may go up or down depending on any changes to Miss X’s universal credit’ and that deductions from universal credit should stop.
10. Miss X’s advocate contacted the Council on 23 July 2021 to let it know of a change in her income and that deductions had started from her universal credit when the Council said these would stop.
11. The Council wrote to Miss X on 8 September 2021. It said that it had written off her arrears on one property, but she was jointly liable for a debt on another shared property from 1 April 2019 until 13 August 2019. This Council wrote this debt off on 16 November. A further amount of Council tax was written off in December 2021, which occurred due to changes in universal credit.
12. Miss X’s advocate has made several complaints about the Council’s action. First, that Miss X, a vulnerable client, has been subject to bailiff action. The Council has said as Miss X did not pay her Council tax, it sent a summons. The Council said ‘When the council tax team were made aware of her domestic violence situation in November 2020 the account was brought back from the enforcement agency and a hold was subsequently put on her account until April 2021. The Council issued recovery documents to Miss X at this point as she had not made any payments. A hold was reinstated to the account following contact by a different caseworker who put in forms for council tax support and discretionary reduction in May 2021’.
13. On the information I have, I can see no fault by the Council on this point. The Council issued a summons when Miss X did not pay her Council Tax, which it is entitled to do by law. When told of Miss X’s situation the Council stopped debt recovery action for 6 months. When the Council did not receive further payments, the Council started recovery action, which stopped when it wrote the debt off.
14. Second, Miss X complains the Council has sent inaccurate demands and resumed deductions from benefits for Council Tax after it agreed to reduce arrears to nil after a stage 1 complaint in July 2021.
15. I have looked at all the information and I can see no evidence of fault. While the Council did send further demands to Miss X after July 2021, these related to changes in universal credit affecting the amount owed and another Council tax account. Once told, the Council wrote off the debt on the other Council tax account. While I appreciate the correspondence is difficult for Miss X to deal with, the Council had to re-assess when told of changes to her universal credit.
16. Miss X’s advocate makes several comments about how improvements could be made to the Council’s systems. While these are noted, I am only able to investigate and remedy Miss X’s complaint.

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Agreed action

17. The Council should apologise to Miss X for not responding to her stage 2 complaint within one month of the date of the decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

18. I have completed my investigation of this complaint. This complaint is upheld as there was fault by the Council, which will be remedied by its apology and writing off Miss X’s Council Tax debts.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman