The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a Council tax debt, wrongly collected by the Council. This is because all the money has been returned to Ms X and there is no unremedied injustice for us to investigate.
The complaint
Ms X complained the Council wrongly collected money for her Council tax debt despite having an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) agreement not to take it. Ms X says she has incurred additional stress and debt as a result of the Council’s actions and should be financially compensated.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide: any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organization.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council responded to the complaint and acknowledged that is should not have collected the debt and has apologised. All monies wrongly taken have now been refunded including the administration charges Ms X incurred. We are satisfied the actions taken by the Council remedy the injustice caused by the fault.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because we are satisfied with the actions taken by the Council and there is no unremedied injustice for us to investigate.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman