The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council overpaid her for her services. The Council apologised, implemented service improvements, and reduced the amount it asked Mrs X to repay. An investigation by the Ombudsman is unlikely to achieve anything further.
The complaint
Mrs X complained the Council failed to pay her correctly for services she provided. She said the Council overpaid her for a period of several months due to the Council’s administrative error and later requested the money back.
Mrs X said the matter caused her distress and impacted her financially.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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: we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by the complainant.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council overpaid her for her services.
Mrs X said she assumed the payments she received were correct and had already spent the money when the Council realised its error. She said the error meant her finances were disrupted.
In its complaint response, the Council: apologised for the error; explained service improvements it would implement to prevent recurrence of the fault; and reduced the amount it asked Mrs X to repay from ~£1,900 to £1,000.
These are all actions the Ombudsman would expect the Council to take. The Council’s ~£900 reduction it already applied to the repayment request is more than the Ombudsman would likely have recommended considering the circumstances. The Council appropriately exercised its discretion and provided a suitable remedy.
Consequently, an investigation is unlikely to achieve anything further, and so we will not investigate this complaint.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because an investigation is unlikely to achieve anything further.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman