Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council illegally accessed the complainant’s bank account in October 2021. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and because it is a late complaint.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complains the Council illegally accessed his bank account in October 2021 for a council tax payment.

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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))
3. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council. This includes other complaints Mr X has made to us and the response the Council sent to Mr X about the alleged illegal payment. I also considered our Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Mr X says the Council illegally accessed his bank account in October 2021 to take money for council tax.
6. The Council wrote to Mr X in November 2021 to say Mr X had made the payment. The Council said it has not held an active direct debit since 2017 so it could not collect any payments from his account.
7. I have seen a spreadsheet which shows the last direct debit was in January 2017 and all the other payments, including the one in October 2021 were made by Mr X as a BAS payments or standing order.
8. I will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council. The Council responded appropriately by explaining Mr X had made the payment and it had no way of accessing his bank account because there was no active direct debit in 2021.
9. I also will not start an investigation because it is a late complaint. Mr X has been aware of the issue since October 2021 but he did not complain to us until December 2022. I have not seen any good reason to investigate a late complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council and because it is a late complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman