Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s action to recover Mr X’s historic council tax debt. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about how the Council has dealt with his historic council tax debt.
2. Mr X says his core complaint is that he cannot afford to pay council tax. He wants the current debt repayment via an Attachment of Earnings Order (AOE) to be stopped due to his financial hardship and vulnerability.
3. Mr X says there have been failures in process and conduct by the Council, and by enforcement agents, dating back to 2019.
4. Mr X says the actions of the Council have caused him severe distress and financial hardship.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

5. 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)
6. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
7. 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 (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
9. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

10. I considered aspects of Mr X’s complaint relating to the twelve months prior to November 2025. Complaints relating to actions before this date are late. The Council had previously signposted Mr X to us when it responded to earlier complaints so Mr X could have made a complaint to us sooner. There are no good reasons to investigate events before November 2024.
11. Mr X says he wants the Council to stop collecting his historic council tax debt via an AOE. He says he cannot afford to pay the debt because of his financial hardship.
12. The Council says Mr X previously received council tax support for a period when he was not working, and a ‘hardship’ payment. The Council says Mr X can make a new request for a discretionary council tax reduction based on his current financial circumstances. The Council has also signposted Mr X to debt advice.
13. The Council says it can request an AOE in respect of two liability order debts at the same time, but it has not done this because it is mindful of Mr X’s current financial situation.
14. The Council says Mr X previously complained that visits to his property by enforcement agents caused distress to his daughter. The Council says that Mr X no longer needs to deal with enforcement agents because the arrears are being recovered via an AOE.
15. I will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s action to recover Mr X’s historic council tax debt. The Council has considered Mr X’s circumstances and only attached one AOE when it could have attached two. The Council has also explained why it is recovering the debt by AOE rather than any other recovery method. The Council has also signposted Mr X to making a new request for a discretionary council tax reduction and signposted Mr X to debt advice. So, there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation.

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Final decision

16. We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s action to recover Mr X’s historic council tax debt. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman