Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the complainant’s council tax is wrong. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Ms X, complains her council tax is wrong. She says the Council owes her £66 and she did not receive the covid hardship payments. Ms X also says the Council owes her £1.40 in postage.

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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 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

3. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council. This includes the complaint correspondence, council tax support (CTS) letters and council tax bills. I also considered our Assessment Code and comments Ms X made in reply to a draft of this decision.

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My assessment

4. Ms X says her council tax is wrong and she is owed £66. She has referred to not getting covid hardship payments or a CTS payment. Ms X wants the £66 and interest and a refund of postage costs.
5. In response to her complaint the Council provided statements, demonstrated that she has received the hardship payments and said it had written off arrears of £81. It also explained it awarded backdated CTS of £66. Ms X says the arrears write off was £84 not £81.
6. I have considered all the statements, letters and the points made by Ms X and I cannot see anything wrong or any need to start an investigation. There are many documents showing the hardship payments were made and there is a letter confirming Ms X was awarded backdated CTS. I have checked the liability, hardship payments and the backdated CTS and checked that against the amount paid by Ms X; there is a zero balance showing Ms X is not owed £66 as she asserts and we will not start an investigation over disputed postal costs.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman