Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council handled the complainant’s payments. This is mainly because we have decided any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council failed to set up a direct debit in 2024 and cannot trace payments he made to settle invoices for services he received. He says the Council responds late to his emails and he is unhappy with the Council’s complaints handling. Mr X says he is very disappointed and distressed because he has always paid his invoices in full.

Back to top

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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
4. People may complain to us about injustice caused by:
• ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’ by a public organisation we could investigate; or
• the actions of an organisation in connection with privately arranged adult social care.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(1) or section 34C(1)(a)).

5. 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), or section 34B(8)).
6. We will not normally investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), or section 34B(8)).

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

7. I considered information provided by the complainant.
8. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

9. Mr X complains about the Council’s failure to set up a direct debit in 2024. This is more than 12 months before he complained to us. I see no good reason why Mr X could not have complained to us about this sooner and therefore will not exercise discretion to consider this part of his complaint.
10. The law means we can choose only to investigate a complaint where the person has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures by the body complained about. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
11. I recognise the circumstances of Mr X’s complaint about missing payments have affected him, but this is not significant enough to warrant us investigating.
12. We will not investigate the way the Council handled Mr X’s complaint because we are satisfied it did not cause enough separate injustice to warrant it.

Back to top

Final decision

13. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because part of it is late and any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. It would be disproportionate to investigate the Council’s complaint handling in isolation.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman