Bedford Borough Council (23 009 726)
Category : Benefits and tax > Council tax
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Oct 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Council enforcement of a Council tax debt as there is no evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
- Ms X complains about the attachment of earnings orders obtained by the Council for unpaid Council tax. She says they are causing her hardship.
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.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X says that the Council has placed two attachment of earnings orders on her wages which she says is causing her hardship. The Council says that law allows them to place up to two attachment of earnings orders where there are Council tax arrears from different years. The Council says it will further review the amounts attached if evidence is provided to warrant this. It says that no such evidence has been received yet.
- I note that the Council concluded, on the evidence provided by Ms X (which included her income and expenditure), that there were no grounds to cancel the attachment of earnings order.
- I am satisfied that the Council properly considered Ms X’s request, and, in the absence of administrative fault, the Ombudsman cannot question the merit of the decision not to cancel the orders.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman