Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax payment reminders sent out by the Council. This is because an investigation is unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X sufficient to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s scheme which sends out council pax payment reminders to those with a registered mobile phone number or email address but not to those without. He says the reminder scheme is selective and should either include all payers, using the post where no mobile or email is registered, or be stopped altogether.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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. (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 and the Council, including its response to the complaint.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council introduced a council tax payment reminder scheme whereby its contractors send a message via mobile phone or email to remind council tax payers who pay by direct debit that a payment will be requested shortly from their bank account.
6. Mr X objected to this and felt the reminder was insulting and threatening. He complained to the Council and it apologised that he had felt this way but explained this was not the purpose of the scheme.
7. Mr X said that in his view the scheme should either cover all council tax payers, using the post where payers do not have a registered phone number or email address, or be stopped.
8. The Council explained its reminder service was offered through text or email only and was provided at no additional cost. It said it would not be offering a reminder service by letter as this would incur additional expenditure.
9. While Mr X may not agree with it, the Council has decided to operate a service enhancement for those with a registered mobile number or email and it is not obliged to send the same information by post to those that do not.
10. We do not investigate every complaint we receive and while Mr X may not be satisfied with the outcome of his complaint to the Council, there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to him to warrant a formal investigation by the Ombudsman.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because an investigation is unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council or injustice caused to Mr X sufficient to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman