IRRV Alert - week ending 5th August 2022

News

Consultations

New benefits and taxation decisions

benefits and taxation

A weekly update on benefits and taxation decisions

Please note: our decisions are published six weeks after they are issued to councils, care providers and the person who has made the complaint. The cases below reflect the caselaw and guidance available at the time of issue and the individual circumstances of each case.

London Borough of Sutton (21 014 074)

 

Summary: Ms B complains the Council took enforcement action against her for non-payment of council tax. She says this was because of a mistake by the Council. Ms B says she was suffering financial hardship and had to pay additional costs to the bailiff. The Ombudsman does not find fault in how the Council managed the debt before enforcement action, or in how enforcement action took place.

Teignbridge District Council (21 016 017)

 

Summary: We will not exercise discretion to investigate Miss X’s complaint about the Council’s lack of assistance in moving when she was evicted. This was received outside the normal 12-month period for receiving complaints and there is no evidence to suggest that she could not have complained to us sooner. We will not investigate her complaint about the refusal of her Discretionary Housing Payment because there is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.

Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council (22 003 430)

 

Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council is miscalculating the annual increase in council tax due to a flawed method. We cannot investigate a complaint which affects ‘all or most’ people. There is insufficient injustice to Mr X who can appeal to the Valuation Tribunal if he is disputing liability to pay.

London Borough of Merton (21 013 960)

 

Summary: Miss X complained the Council incorrectly calculated her entitlement to housing benefit and wrongly refused to award Discretionary Housing Payment which has resulted in significant rent arears. The delays and errors in the way the Council dealt with Miss X’s housing benefit and Discretionary Housing Payment claims amount to fault. This fault has caused Miss X an injustice.

Reading Borough Council (22 002 522)

 

Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council processed the complainant’s council tax. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

Bassetlaw District Council (22 002 102)

 

Summary: The Council, when telling Miss X to repay housing benefit (HB) and council tax, used the wrong postcode for Miss X and did not tell her how to appeal against the council tax decision. The Council has now agreed my invitation to support a late appeal request to the tribunal dealing with HB. The Council has also now told Miss X how to appeal against the CTR decision. Therefore it is reasonable to expect Miss X to appeal to the tribunals, so we shall not investigate whether Miss X should repay money. There are insufficient reasons to investigate other parts of the complaint.

London Borough of Bexley (21 010 860)

 

Summary: Mrs E complained about the Council’s enforcement of a council tax debt. She says the Council should not have applied to court to take possession of her property. We have discontinued our investigation into Mrs E’s complaint. Most of her complaint is late and her recent concerns involve matters that have been considered by the court or are inextricably linked to court action.

Harrogate Borough Council (21 018 061)

 

Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint that the Council has not recognised the complainant as being vulnerable as defined by the Equality Act and the Council’s Debt Recovery Protocol. This is because the law prevents us from investigating any matter that has been considered in court. In addition, there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.


 


IRRV Software

Copyright © 2024 · All Rights Reserved · Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation
Warning: Undefined array key "User_id" in /home/irrvnet/public_html/forumalert/inc_footer.php on line 4