Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Mr X’s council tax and the actions of Council officers when he attended for an interview to discuss his case. This is because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council failed to respond to a letter he sent in June 2022 which has led to him accruing a council tax debt. He also says a security guard used unnecessary force to remove him from a council building after his appointment was terminated, which caused distress. He wants the Council to correct the errors in his council tax bill and compensate him for the distress caused.

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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 or may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide:

• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. In its complaint response, the Council said it had backdated the single person discount and council tax support to Mr X’s account and applied an additional reduction to cover the whole period he was eligible for council tax, as a gesture of goodwill. This meant the outstanding amount owed for the 2022/23 council tax year was £49.69. It invited him to contact them to make arrangements to pay both this and his council tax for the current financial year in monthly installments.
6. In response to his complaint about the actions of officers during his interview, it accepted it could have explained more clearly at the time why he was being asked to leave. It partially upheld his complaint and said it would look at how it could improve its communication in these circumstances.
7. We should not investigate this complaint. The Council has backdated the single person discount and council tax support and applied it to Mr X’s account for the full period that Mr X was eligible to pay council tax during 2022/23. It has given him the opportunity to pay the outstanding debt for 2022/23 and this year’s council tax in installments. We could not achieve anything more than this.
8. The Council has partially upheld his complaint about how it terminated his interview and said it will act to improve its service to ensure it clearly communicates its reasons when this situation occurs in future. This is an appropriate action and we could not add anything to this by investigating further.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome or achieve anything more.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman