London Borough of Merton (23 003 511)
Category : Benefits and tax > Housing benefit and council tax benefit
Decision : Upheld
Decision date : 27 Jun 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s response to his complaint because the Council’s actions have remedied his complaint and there are insufficient grounds to warrant investigation.
The complaint
- Mr X says that the Council’s response to his complaint does not provide answers to all his questions and he considers that the Council should pay him compensation.
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:
- there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
- 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 organisation, or
- further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(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
- Mr X made a complaint about the quality of service he received when he tried to contact the Council.
- The Council responded by apologising for the service and it detailed the actions the Council proposed to take to avoid the problem arising again.
- I have considered the detailed response for the Council to Mr X’s complaint and I am satisfied that their actions constitute a satisfactory remedy. I do not consider that the Council is obliged to provide any further detail in response, or compensation.
- As the matter has been remedied, there are no grounds for further investigation by the Ombudsman.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman