Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council displayed council tax increases. This is because the issue has not caused the complainant a significant injustice.

The complaint

1. X complains that that Council has displayed council tax increased on its bills. X complains that the Council had failed to round up increases to the decimal point. X also complains about how the Council dealt with his complaints about this.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. I will not investigate X’s complaint because I do not consider that the issues raised have caused him a significant enough injustice to warrant further investigation.
6. It is not a good use of public resources to investigate complaints about complaint procedures, if we are unable to deal with the substantive issue.
    

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate X’s complaint because the issues raised have not caused them a significant enough injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman