Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about an outstanding council tax balance. Mr X’s claimed injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council gave him misleading information about an outstanding council tax balance.
2. Mr X said this caused a negative impact to his mental health.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 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

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr X complained the Council gave him misleading information about how much council tax he owed.
7. In its complaint response, the Council explained it had paused sending out letters about outstanding council tax balances because of a system upgrade. However, it said it sent Mr X notices about the balance before this.
8. The Council confirmed Mr X had an outstanding balance of £50.41 which remained payable.
9. As a publicly funded body we must be careful how we use our resources.
10. We will not normally investigate a complaint unless there is good reason to believe that the complainant has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the Council.
11. In this case, there is no evidence to suggest Mr X has suffered a significant injustice which would meet the threshold for a full Ombudsman investigation.
12. The outstanding balance is a low amount and the Council responded to Mr X’s complaint promptly to clarify it remained outstanding.
13. For this reason, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the claimed injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman