Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s refusal to consider refunding Mr X some of a penalty charge he paid. This is because we do not consider significant injustice has been caused.

The complaint

1. Mr X requested a partial refund of his £160 penalty charge notice (PCN) payment. Mr X would only have had to pay half that amount if he had paid sooner. He says he did not pay sooner because he did not receive the Council’s relevant letter sooner. He wants the Council to refund half his payment.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We consider 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))

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

5. Our role is to consider complaints where the person bringing the complaint has suffered significant personal injustice as a direct result of the actions or inactions of the organisation. This means we will normally only investigate a complaint where the complainant has suffered serious loss, harm, or distress as a direct result of faults or failures. We will not normally investigate a complaint where the alleged loss or injustice is not a serious or significant matter.
6. This complaint is about a sum of £80 at most. In all the circumstances, that is not a significant enough injustice to warrant the Ombudsman devoting time and public money to pursuing the complaint.
7. Mr X is also dissatisfied with the Council’s handling of his formal complaint about the matter. 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. Nor did the complaint-handling in itself disadvantage Mr X significantly enough for us to investigate.

Back to top

Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there has not been significant injustice caused to him by the Council.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman