Summary: We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s handling of her council tax account. The Council has provided a suitable remedy, and any further investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains the Council wrongly removed her single occupancy discount, sent communications to the wrong address, issued a court summons with no notice, and failed to respond to her SAR request. Miss X also complains of poor complaint handling.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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 provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. 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, or, there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6&7), section 34(B), as amended).
5. 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.

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by Miss X and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. We normally expect people to complain to us within twelve months of them becoming aware of a problem. Miss X did not complain to the Ombudsman until November 2025. We will therefore not consider matters Miss X has been aware of since prior to November 2024, including her complaint about the single occupancy discount. It would have been reasonable for Miss X to bring this complaint to us sooner. The Council have also stated the single occupancy discount has been backdated to cover the whole period of the complaint. We would not achieve a different outcome to what the Council has already provided.
9. In 2025 the Council accepted it did not correctly bill Miss X for her council tax in 2022/2023. The Council apologised, waived the outstanding bill and refunded the court summons cost. This is a suitable remedy in line with our guidance. Further investigation would not achieve a different outcome to what the Council has already provided.
10. Part of Miss X’s complaint is about the Council’s failure to respond to her information requests. The Information Commissioner’s Office is the organisation best placed to consider complaints about how organisations handle people’s data and respond to requests for information. In the absence of a wider complaint within our remit, there is not a good reason for us to consider the matter instead.
11. We will also not investigate how the Council dealt with Miss X’s complaint as it is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint handling when we are not looking at the substantive issue.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint. The Council have provided a suitable remedy, and any further investigation is unlikely to lead to a different outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman