Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to allocate a council tax payment to Mr X’s account. This is because the Council has already satisfactorily remedied the situation and an investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Mr X complainedthe Council took several months to allocate a council tax payment to his account, causing him to chase for an update.

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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:

• 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 Mr X and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council has conceded that it failed to allocate a payment Mr X made to his council tax account in July 2023 until October 2023.
6. During this time Mr X had to contact the Council asking for an update on the situation and he decided to suspend his council tax payments whilst the issue was ongoing.
7. After Mr X made a complaint, the Council explained a fault with its system had led to the error. The Council apologised, confirmed it had implemented new processes to ensure the issue did not happen again and offered Mr X £100 as a financial award to address the time and trouble he was put to by the matter.
8. Mr X remains unhappy with the Council’s actions and wants us to find the Council at fault. The Council has already accepted that it was at fault and provided an explanation for what happened. The Council has corrected the issue and provided Mr X with a financial award which is higher than the Ombudsman would have recommended. The Council has acted reasonably to remedy this matter; an investigation would not provide Mr X with a different outcome.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because an investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman