Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a council tax and housing benefit appeal. This is because the Council has agreed to remedy the potential injustice due to its delays. There is not enough evidence of fault before the council tax summons, and we cannot investigate the court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council was wrong to send a summons and obtain a liability order, because it did not send reminders or an explanation of its assessment of capital and income for council tax support. He wants to appeal the housing benefit and council tax support decisions. However, he says he has not received a response to his queries or his appeal in January 2026.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. 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(7), as amended).
3. The Social Entitlement Chamber (also known as the Social Security Appeal Tribunal) is a tribunal that considers housing benefit appeals. (The Social Entitlement Chamber of the First Tier Tribunal)
4. The Valuation Tribunal deals with appeals against decisions on council tax liability and council tax support or reduction.
5. 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), section 34(B)).

6. We cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended).

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. I also considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mr X says the Council did not properly consider changes to his private pension, used incorrect capital figures, and did not respond to queries raised in May 2025. He disputed the Council’s housing benefit and council tax support decisions, but says he was prevented from exercising appeal rights. He also challenged council tax arrears, the issue of the summons, liability order, and enforcement action.
9. The Council did not uphold Mr X’s complaint. It said benefit changes arose from pension information from HMRC. It had cancelled his housing benefit and reopened it due to a change in payment method. It had not cancelled council tax support, but it had sent an incorrect notification letter. It said Mr X had appeal rights, and it had invited him to clarify which decisions he wanted to appeal.
10. However, after the complaints process, the Council accepted it failed to send a substantive response to Mr X’s January 2026 request to appeal its decisions.
11. If we were to investigate it is likely we would find fault causing Mr X injustice because the Council received his email in January 2026 saying he wanted to appeal, but it did not respond. I consider this led to frustration and inconvenience as Mr X has not been able to progress his appeal for eight months.
12. We cannot investigate the summons Mr X says he did not receive because this is the start of court proceedings.
13. We will not investigate the Council’s actions before the summons as there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council. It had sent a first reminder and was not required to send a second reminder.

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Agreed Action

14. At our invitation the Council has agreed to remedy the potential injustice due to the delay in replying to Mr X’s appeal. Within one month it will:
• Write to Mr X responding to his appeal made in late January 2026.
• Set out Mr X’s right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal and the Social Entitlement Chamber regarding council tax support and housing benefit.
• Apologise to Mr X in accordance with our guidance on remedies. This sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice.
• Pay Mr X £100 as a symbolic payment to recognise the injustice due to delay.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the Council has agreed to take suitable action. There is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions before it issued the summons to warrant investigation, and we cannot investigate the summons itself.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman