Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council handled his council tax direct debit payments. We have not seen enough evidence of fault to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council repeatedly failed to collect direct debit payments for his council tax even though his direct debit was active. He said the Council never told him it had not taken any direct debit payments.
2. He said the Council re-calculated his Council Tax Support close to the date it was due to collect a direct debit payment, which prevented it from taking any payments.
3. Mr X complains his council tax arrears increased because the Council did not take any payments. He would like the Council to restore his payment plan based on what would have been due had the direct debit payments had been collected.
4. He would also like the Council to apologise to him and confirm that his direct debit is still active.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because have not seen enough evidence of fault to justify a further investigation.
9. The Council’s is required to re-calculate Mr X’s council tax support each time it receives a notification from the Department for Work and Pensions regarding changes to Mr X’s Universal Credit. The Council is also then required to issue a new bill.
10. The Council says it received notifications every month and therefore had to issue new bills each month.
11. However, this also meant the Council had to change the direct debit instalment date 10 working days before the new collection date after issuing each new bill. This meant that Mr X’s direct debit payments were pushed back each month due to the monthly revised bills, and therefore no payments were taken.
12. Mr X says the Council never told him it was not collecting any direct debit payments. However, the Council has explained Mr X would have seen on each revised bill that no direct debit payments had been taken, and that there was still an outstanding amount due.
13. It also advised Mr X his bank statements would have shown the Council had not collected any direct debit payments.
14. The Council has now cancelled Mr X’s direct debit. It has also offered to spread the council tax due this tax year into the next tax year. It is open to Mr X to contact the Council to talk about his council tax account.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we have not seen enough evidence of fault to justify a further investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman