Service improvements

London Borough of Barnet

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

Find out more about service improvements

When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.

Showing 1 - 3 of 3 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for London Borough of Barnet as a CSV file.

  • London Borough of Barnet (23 000 719)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 08-Oct-2023

    Summary

    We found fault with the Council for the delay in sending the complainant (Ms X) her council tax bills and for providing insufficient support for Ms X when she tried to apply for Council Tax Support and Council Tax Discretionary Relief. This fault caused Ms X injustice. The Council agreed to apologise, make a symbolic payment to recognise Ms X’s distress and train its staff who deal with council tax enquiries.

    Service improvements

    The Council will ensure all staff in the contact centre who provide council tax support read our Focus Report 'Equal Access: Getting it right for people with disabilities' published in May 2022 and 'Principles of good administrative practice' issued in December 2018.

  • London Borough of Barnet (23 000 639)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 24-Oct-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complains the Council has not dealt properly with his Council Tax charges. The Council is at fault because it has failed to collect his Council Tax properly and has sent him incorrect demands for payment resulting in enforcement action being taken. Mr X suffered avoidable distress and had to unnecessarily had to spend time addressing multiple errors. The Council has apologised and offered to pay Mr X £200. The Council has agreed to apologise for further errors, pay Mr X a further £200 for additional avoidable distress and £100 for his time and trouble, make an application to Court to set aside a liability order and review its systems/processes.

    Service improvements

    Review its systems and processes to ensure that the problem of payments/compensation being applied to a Council Tax account cannot impact negatively on any other person liable for Council Tax, as it did for Mr X.

  • London Borough of Barnet (22 011 740)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 02-Nov-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complains the Council failed to update its records regarding his liability for council tax and wrongly took recovery action against him. We have found the Council acted with fault, by failing to correctly update its records and failing to investigate Mr X’s liability at the earliest opportunity. We have also found the Council at fault for its record-keeping and inconsistent communication. We have made recommendations to remedy the injustice we believe this caused Mr X. We have also recommended the Council act to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind its officers of the importance of keeping proper, suitable records, and ensure officers review the Ombudsman's published Principles of Good Administrative Practice guidance.The Council has agreed that senior officers will review the findings of this investigation. The Council will produce an action plan setting out how it intends to prevent the faults found here from occurring in the future. It will share this action plan with the Ombudsman.

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