Edition 7 - Benefits and Taxation special

Edition 7 - March 2019

Welcome to our special edition

Did you know....in 2017/18 just under 12% of the complaints we received were about Benefits and Taxation services. We investigate all aspects of council tax and business rates – such as valuation, liability, billing and various aspects of recovery including the use of bailiffs. We look at claims for housing benefit or council tax support – assessment, appeals and including complaints from landlords saying they had not been paid housing benefit for their tenants. We also received some complaints about how councils dealt with local welfare claims. We upheld 70% of the benefits and taxation cases we investigated.

This month we are launching our new Benefits and Taxation decisions newsletter. This will give you the latest decisions published on our website straight to your inbox every Thursday, and will go out alongside our popular existing newsletters covering our work in Adult Care Services, Children and Education, Housing and Planning.

If you would like to sign up to this new newsletter, or change or add to the newsletters you already receive, you can visit the sign up page on our website.

Our Committee appearances

Our Assistant Ombudsman Sharon Chappell gave evidence to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee highlighting the trends we see in complaints about children’s services.

Separately, the Justice Select Committee took evidence about the impact of reforms introduced in 2014 about how enforcement agents (bailiffs) operate. Our Assistant Ombudsman Andrew Hobley shared with the Committee our insights from complaints regarding local authorities’ use of bailiffs. We also responded to a Ministry for Justice call for evidence into the same topic.

Next week, our Ombudsman Michael King will also be appearing before the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee to discuss the need for the Government to press ahead with legislating to set up a Public Service Ombudsman, as well as current gaps in access to redress for local public services and how they might be addressed.

Helping people who work with children with Special Educational Needs

We have recently delivered three half-day training sessions for SENDIASS advisors (who support families of children with SEN).

The sessions ran in Birmingham, London and York and looked at how we conduct investigations, some of the outcomes we have achieved in this area and how our jurisdiction works in relation to the SEND Tribunal.

In total we provided training for around 120 frontline staff all of whom engaged very positively and asked lots of questions. We have had some lovely feedback.

First care provider event held in Leeds

Last week, we spoke to more than 50 independent care providers at the first of three special events being held across the country over the next few weeks.

We've had the jurisdiction to investigate complaints about privately-funded care for nearly 10 years, and an important part of our work is reaching out to care providers to highlight our role, stress the importance of good complaints handling and offer advice and guidance.

The events are covering important updates from our Ombudsman, Michael King along with guidance on working in partnership with other organisations including the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The 'tour' is visiting Birmingham today (5 March) before finishing in London on 13 March.

Councillor conduct complaints

The Committee on Standards in Public Life recommended, following its review of ethical standards across local government, that stronger sanctions in the form of suspending councillors for up to six months should be available to councils. It also recommended that suspended councillors should have the right to appeal decisions to us.

You can read our response to the Committee’s proposals here.