Northumberland County Council (23 007 276)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 18 Oct 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the amount of compensation offered to Mrs X by the Council following fault in its handling of her Council Tax account. This is because an investigation will not usefully add to the investigation already carried out by the Council or lead to a significantly different outcome.
The complaint
- The complainant, who I refer to as Mrs X, complains about the amount of compensation offered to her by the Council following fault in its handling of her Council Tax account.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- 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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant, including the Council’s response to her complaint.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- While Mrs X’s dissatisfaction with the goodwill payment offered by the Council for the distress its fault caused her is noted, there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation by the Ombudsman.
- We do not investigate every complaint we receive and in this case an investigation is unlikely to add to that already carried out by the Council or lead to a significantly different outcome.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because an investigation will not usefully add to the investigation already carried out by the Council or lead to a significantly different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman