Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about council tax. This is because the complaint is late, and there is not enough evidence of fault. Mrs X has already referred part of the complaint to the Information Commissioner.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council pursued her for council tax from 2022 but failed to follow the correct administrative procedure and did not properly obtain liability orders in court. She also says the Council
• made deductions from her benefits for council tax causing her hardship.
• did not assist her by paying a discretionary housing payment.
• breached Data Protection rules as it gave information to enforcement agents.
• should pay her a significant sum in compensation

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended).
3. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.
4. We cannot investigate a complaint if someone has appealed to a tribunal about the same matter. We also cannot investigate a complaint if in doing so we would overlap with the role of a tribunal to decide something which has been or could have been referred to it to resolve using its own powers. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(a), as amended).
5. 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
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint.

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

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

7. Mrs X complained to the Council in December 2024 about its actions pursuing recovery of a liability order for council tax. She said the Council’s actions were unlawful and caused her hardship.
8. The Council replied it obtained a liability order in court in September 2022. It did not accept it had not followed the correct administrative and legal processes. It had made deductions from Mrs X’s benefits from 2022. The Council paid Mrs X a discretionary payment for council tax in 2022 and sent her a form in 2023 which she did not return.
9. Mrs X has complained to the Information Commissioner about the Council’s delay in responding to her subject access request for data the Council held.
10. Mrs X’s complaint is late because it relates to matters that she was aware of from 2022. There is no good reason for Mrs X’s delay in complaining to the Ombudsman. Even if we were to use our discretion to investigate this late complaint, there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation. Mrs X has already complained to the Information Commissioner and therefore we cannot consider her complaint about data breaches.
11. Mrs X has raised more recent complaint but the Council has not yet had an opportunity to consider these.

Back to top

Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is late and there is no good reason for this. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigation and Mrs X has already complained to the Information Commissioner.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman