Council to apologise to woman left £1,000 in debt

The Ombudsman told Cumberland Council to improve its processes

A watchdog has ordered a council to say sorry to a woman left owing £1,000 in tax debt.

The Local Government Ombudsman upheld a complaint against Cumberland Council for failing to collect council tax payments through the direct debit the woman had set up.

The council told the Ombudsman the amount the resident should pay kept changing due to her benefit entitlement, meaning it could not amend the direct debit on time.

The local authority said it would change its processes to make sure it did not happen in the future.

Documents published by the Ombudsman said the resident, referred to as Miss D, qualified for council tax reduction because she was on Universal Credit.

However, as her benefit entitlement changed several times, so did the amount she had to pay in council tax.

The council had sent her revised bills via email, but Miss D did not see them as they went into her junk email folder.

She also said the letters did not state she was accruing debt, and the Ombudsman said that should have been made clear in their communication.

'Alert system needed'

Miss D contacted the council once she realised she was more than £1,000 in debt, nine months after her council tax entitlement had first started to change.

The Ombudsman's report showed the council told Miss D because she had set up electronic billing, the system had not picked up the issues and it did not know she was not receiving their emails.

The watchdog said the council "should have contacted her to discuss the outstanding debt" when it realised Miss D's payments were not being received.

Its report added: "I accept Miss D's instalments were constantly changing, but there should have been an alert on the council’s internal system when it was not receiving any payments for several months. The fact there was not one, is fault."

The Ombudsman added there was "some onus" on Miss D to check the payments were being sent.

But it said the authority should apologise to her and set up a payment plan for the debt and the current tax bills to be paid.

The Ombudsman also ordered the council to change its processes to avoid similar issues in the future.

A spokesperson for the council said it would be "complying fully" with the Ombudsman's decision, including apologising to Miss D "for any injustice caused".

"We'll also be introducing the necessary alerts and notifications into our processes to ensure this situation isn't repeated in the future," they added.