Summary: Miss Y complains about the approach used by the Council to recover overpaid Housing Benefit and Discretionary Housing Payments. The Ombudsman finds fault because the Council wrongly pursued Miss Y for the recovery of Discretionary Housing Payments, and then prematurely wrote to her employer to seek a Direct Earnings Attachment for overpaid Housing Benefit. This fault caused distress, which the Council will remedy by offsetting £200 from any outstanding debt owed by Miss Y.

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the complainant’s claims for housing benefit. The complainant has appealed to a tribunal against some decisions and there is no reason he could not appeal against any others.

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mrs B’s complaint that the Council has treated her unfairly when dealing with her housing benefit and council tax support claim. This is because it is reasonable to expect her to use her right of appeal if she disagrees with the Council’s re-consideration decision.

Summary: Mr B complains about the Council’s handling of his business rates bill which fails to accurately reflect his liability. The Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

Summary: the Council delayed referring Mr B’s housing benefit appeal to tribunal. That caused Mr B to incur rent arrears and led to him having to go to time and trouble to pursue his complaint. The Council has agreed to refer the case to the tribunal service. An apology and payment to Mr B is satisfactory remedy for the injustice caused.

Summary: The Council was at fault for failing to give any refusal reasons when it issued its decision on Mr B’s application for discretionary business rate relief. It was also at fault for failing to answer his emails between April and December 2018. It has apologised to Mr B and has agreed to write to him with more detailed reasons for its refusal.

Summary: Miss X complained about the Council pursuing her for a housing benefit overpayment and unpaid council tax arrears from 2016 to 2018. The Ombudsman should not investigate this complaint. This is because it was reasonable to appeal to the Independent Benefits Tribunal against the housing benefit decisions. The Council tax arrears are subject to two separate liability orders from the Magistrates Court and the bailiff’s fees comply with the regulations.

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint the Council has said he has received an overpayment of Housing Benefit. It is reasonable to expect Mr B to use his right of appeal to the Social Security Appeal Tribunal.

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about council tax and council tax support from 2016. This is because this is a late complaint and because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

Summary: Ms X complained the Council did not properly use deductions from her state benefits to pay towards her council tax arrears, and did not give her consistent information. The Council is not at fault. It has provided Ms X evidence of payments it received from the Department for Work and Pensions and council tax statements. These show payments were all applied to Ms X’s council tax account.

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that a Council officer trespassed onto his land and later lied about the matter. It is unlikely we could add to the Council’s investigation. Mr X’s injustice is not enough to justify our involvement. And he may go to court about the matter.

Summary: Ms X complains that the Council has wrongly billed her, as landlord, for council tax on a property she rents out. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because the matter has been remedied.

Summary: Mrs X complains that the Council wrongly held her liable for council tax on a property she rented out to tenants. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because she appealed to a Valuation Tribunal.

Summary: The Ombudsman cannot investigate Mr B’s complaint about the way the Council dealt with his application for a discretionary housing payment. This is because Mr B has started court action against the Council.

Summary: Mr X complained about the Council’s handling of his Housing Benefit overpayment. The Ombudsman cannot investigate this complaint. This is because Mr X has appealed to a Tribunal.

Summary: Mr B complained the Council wrongly instructed enforcement agents to take recovery action against him for unpaid business rates relating to a property owned by a charity of which he was a trustee. There was fault by the Council in providing Mr B’s home address to the enforcement agents for recovery action. The Council will, within one month of this decision, apologise and pay Mr B £500 for the distress caused to him and his family by the visit by the enforcement agent.

Summary: Ms B complains the Council wrongly calculated her council tax and took enforcement action when it said it would not. The Ombudsman has not found fault. The Council gave Ms B information about her appeal rights and told her what would happen if she did not pay her council tax. Ms B can raise concerns about how the Council calculated her council tax with the Valuation Tribunal.

Summary: Mr X and Ms Y complain the Council has failed to deal with their request for council tax relief. They also complain about the way the Council handled their complaint about this matter. The Ombudsman has found the Council was at fault for giving unclear and conflicting advice about its Section 13A application process, and for delaying unnecessarily when dealing with the couple’s application. We have also found it was at fault for the way it handled their complaint about these matters. To remedy these faults, it has informed the couple of its decision and offered them a payment to recognise the distress they were caused and the time and trouble they incurred in making their complaint. It has also agreed to carry out some service improvement recommendations to prevent the faults from reoccurring.

Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council has treated the complainant in relation to council tax arrears. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

Summary: Mr B complains about a housing arrears matter from 2016. The Ombudsman will not investigate the complaint because it has been made too late and so falls outside our jurisdiction.