LG & SC Ombudsman Anmeldelser 

Bury Council- in a Simple request for a dropped kerb for safety reason (backed by local councillors). Donna Ball an executive abused her position insulting both myself and the councillor. After intervention by the councillor Bury Council agreed to “look” at the request. They sent an officer who was friends with our neighbours and he stated that my request would reduce their street parking. I complained to the Council and demonstrated bias, the council took over SIX months to produce an excuse of a document that allows you to engage the inept ombudsman. The ombudsman found the council at fault, he also suggested they pay compensation. The Council refused to pay any compensation and the ombudsman removed it from their final decision. The ombudsman also ordered the council to revisit my request properly and that I could challenge their decision. The challenge was subtly removed from the final decision after more objections. The council did revisit for 64 seconds all recorded on CCTV and again refused. When I challenged the decision the Council said they would no longer discuss it with me and told me to back to the ombudsman. I did, I wasted my time, the ombudsman were told by the council two officers had attended and they could pick and choose who they gave permission to, despite CCTV showing just one officer for 64 seconds the ombudsman again took the side of the council. It’s a joke, a waste of money and something needs to be done about this sham set up which is entirely worked in lock step with each other. I then read in the local press that an award was made by the council for another resident with the exact same maladministration complaint.

They are deliberately biased, ignore clear evidence and willingly cover up criminal acts and child abuse, to protect local government employees from scrutiny and Council's from liability for large compensation pay outs.
This despicable organisation masquerades as fair and unbiased, whilst they have no intention on finding any fault with local government.

This process is entirely corrupt - designed to legitimise Council’s behaviour. All of the Case Handlers have existing working relationships with all of the Council’s - they speak daily. There is NOTHING about this process that seeks to provide justice for anyone. The worst thing you can do is go to the Ombudsman - they are accountable to no one.

I want to share my experience of Liverpool City Council, Newlyn Plc, TEC Justice, CCBC Northampton and the Local Social Care Ombudsman and how they forced money from me leaving me and my children without money straight after Christmas. This happened back in 2018 and I am still fighting this matter to this day. It’s literally like banging your head against a brick wall. Everything is about the process and no empathy is given at all, they do not treat you as an individual or listen to your situation.
I was given a parking fine back in March 2018 outside my place of work. I appealed this due to me only being a couple of minutes late back to my car as I got stuck in a meeting. I pay for parking almost every day, so Liverpool City Council have made a lot of money from me in the past.
In August my appeal was refused, and I was told to pay £25. I made the payment and thought that was the end of the matter.
Then in September 2018 I was told that I owed £58 for the same fine. I was totally confused. I called Liverpool City Council and told them I had paid the fine. They asked me for the last 4 digits of my card details and ran some checks. They told me that I hadn’t made a payment towards this fine. I paid the £58 payment as I didn’t want this to go any further. I then contacted my bank and raised a chargeback with the bank as Liverpool City Council could not confirm where the £25 had gone.
Then in November 2018 I receive another letter regarding the same parking fine stating I owed over £100. Bearing in mind that I had paid £58 already.
Please bear in mind, the demand for payments being sent, did not have any sort of breakdown as to what I was paying for, what the total amount was, or what had been paid off the balance.
E.g., Total Fine amount = £158, total paid £58, outstanding amount = £100, there was nothing like this or I may have had a better understanding of it. It was just a letter demanding over £100 and I didn’t know what it was for. I spoke to Liverpool City Council, and they advised to email them and explain that I paid it. This is what I did. I then received an email telling me the case was on hold.
I was still awaiting the response to my enquiry when in January 2019 the bailiff’s turned up at my parent’s house, as the car was registered to my dad. They were demanding him to pay over £300 or threatened to take his belongings. My dad was scared and paid it on my behalf. My dad is retired and only gets a pension, leaving me forced to repay my dad or he would have been short, this then left me short for money and I had 2 children to look after, we had only just had Christmas.
I called the council to try to get to the bottom of it and they told me it was because I raised a chargeback. Firstly, this was never made clear to me in any of the correspondence sent to me and secondly, the case was on hold, so why was the bailiff sent when the case was on hold. At first, I could not recall that I raised a chargeback about this, because I had fraud on my account when on holiday and had to raise a lot of chargebacks around this time. So, initially I apologised to the council and said the bank must have raised the chargeback in error but if I can provide evidence, can you refund me. They said yes, that should be fine. I sent them the evidence, but they refused to refund me. I then started to take the matter down different routes, and my argument was always that the bank got mixed up and accidently raised the chargeback. Everyway I turned, they sided with the council. It was only when I received the transcript from the council, that I remembered why the chargeback was raised, the transcript stated that I called to advise I made the £25 payment, but it could not be located. This is the reason the chargeback was raised. Now I have realised that they must have received that £25 towards that fine, when they told me they didn’t.
So, because I was given false information from the council, this resulted in me raising a chargeback, causing me to have to pay £335 plus £58 already paid.
I tried to appeal it, but they said that I had already exhausted every avenue and they were not willing to help. I understand, I initially confused things by not remembering the reason I raised the chargeback, but the evidence is there in black and white. The ombudsman they had made their final decision and were not willing to relook at it.
Then they tried to justify it by telling me, it wouldn’t matter anyway because the £25 I paid after I lost the appeal was paid too late and this is why the amount increased. But of course, it would have mattered because I would have paid the £58 and not raised the chargeback or I would have made the payment in November if it would have been explained to me.

Responses from LGO representatives have an air of casualness and vagueness. I asked for clarification. The rep didn't answer my question and merely served up a dollop of template paragraphs: that they have a choice over what cases they take on and they will contact me in 4 weeks, but it could be longer.

I found the website very slow / unresponsive. Why the onerous two factor authorisation every time there's a new message for me. Why not email me? Website is awful to negotiate due to poor signposting. I had no clue where to look for new messages.

My case was partially upheld but they ignored most serious issues, particularly disability discrimination. They were pompous and inflexible with me, not so with Council that they let continue for weeks without paying up the small compensation awarded. When the Council supplied 'proof' of payment to the LGO, LGSC abruptly closed the case before I had received it.

IMHO, I suggest you look through the cases taken up by the LGO note its low uphold of complaints and decide for yourself just how useful service this service is to the public. Strictly speaking LGSC your service is NOT 'free', it's a service we pay for in our taxes and a service that falls too short of remedying injustice for the majority.

The LGSCO is a total waste of time and tax payers money. No matter what evidence you supply, they just ignore it. The sole aim of the LGSCO is to cover up bad practice and protect local government. The LGSCO is a corrupt and dishonest organisation that needs to be replaced by a new organisation run by new employees who care about the service they provide to the public.

Don't waste your time raising a complaint with the LGSCO. Just read the other reviews.

I would have given a 0 rating if I could.

In my opinion arrogant and incompetent. They made their Final Decision (in favour of the Local Authority) without requesting ANY evidence from me. When I complained, their response was that, in making their final decision, it is for the investigator to determine what information they need to make a sound decision. What court or competent ombudsman would arrive at a judgement without reviewing all the evidence? You couldn't make it up. Despite my questioning they repeatedly avoided explaining the rationale behind their decision making.

The gatekeepers (“investigators”) make snap decisions and then stick to them rigidly, never giving access to the actual ombudsman. They did not read my complaint properly as they made many mistakes, made several huge assumptions and missed out a lot in their report. They did not contact the council, they did not ask me for further details - all they did was instantly side with the council.
They are called investigators but they refuse to investigate - I asked them to check that the council had completed the corrective actions they had promised, but they said there was no need. How then are the many errors made by the council that caused me to complain going to stop? When I showed how they had not even met their own code the “investigator” got incredibly defensive and aggressive. They were unhelpful, had no empathy, their replies were childlike, petty, and rude, and they appeared bitter. They wrote as if I had affronted them and it was their job to put me down - rather than being the route to assist with a genuine complaint. I asked for a review by a manager but was not even permitted to do that.
They even said they had the same legal weight as an ombudsman! What the same as a trained and qualified ombudsman!! I complained to the ombudsman but my complaint was not permitted to be seen by an ombudsman. What’s the point of having an ombudsman and how will councils improve if there are no consequences?
They said they get thousands of complaints per year - well act on them and do something rather than dismissing them all, and the number will drop as councils are forced to improve!

Awful experience which gives the Local Authority carte blanche to behave unlawfully. No wonder the Local Authority ignore their statutory duty when the very organisation tasked with holding them to account sees fit to ignore their unlawful behaviour. Would be laughable if the consequences of such weren't so serious.

The LGO are just as corrupt as what the local authority are. They find the LAs at fault and then do not give a remedy that will compensate the child or the parent for their experience and lack of education so while ever the LGO back the LA...... Disabled children are going continue to be discriminated against but the LGO just do not care.

This organisation is not fit for purpose - I agree with every word of criticism stated in all the published reports about this organisation - I have suffered the same fete as all the other people who have written TP reviews about this organisation which shields behind a document called an assessment code which is a document of biblical proportions and which the ombudsman and his staff apply or not as they deem appropriate for their purposes.

I have reported my experience with this organisation to my MP and drawn his attention to the numerous reviews from people who like me have had unfair treatment from it - I have had no response from the MP to whom I have written twice and had 1 face to face meeting. The MP had failed to respond to my first letter written in early November last year and when I saw him in early March this year he said my letter had been mislaid - hence no reply from him to it. At my March meeting with him MP appeared to have some knowledge of my complaints which I made to him concerning the local government department (planning) and LG &SC ombudsman - the MP did not say he could not or was not prepared to help and indeed said he would write to the CE of the local council about my complaints- whether he did so or not I do not know as despite a further letter from me to him I have heard nothing further from him. Perhaps I should complain about him to Trustpilot.

Is there no way of taking these people/ organisations to task and make them accountable for their (illegal) actions. Does no one want to help the law abiding, taxpaying,ordinary citizen in this seemingly God forsaken country - it would appear that no one does.

Wouldn't investigate a complaint I had with the council who made a decision using made up information.
Not only was factual information changed or made up, the council also ignored some of its Local Plan Policies that were pointed out to them, whilst weaponising other policies.
LGO showed no interested.

This government body do not consider crucial facts that have been supplied to them for the situation being complained about ... absolutely clueless! Better to speak to your postman!

Absolutely no help given, i had a complaint about my local council about getting a bigger bin. I am disabled and cant go to the dump. I am now reduced to flushing rubbish down the toilet and putting whatever rubbish fits into recycling. Will not be using them again will sort my own problems out.

Please read reviews and don’t expect your complaint to be impartially dealt with. There appears to a be a common theme…councils are able to take decisions as they see fit. They’re not required to meet standards and the ombudsman will back them up. The ombudsman’s decision has actually worsened our position …. Be warned!

As the numerous negative reviews on Trustpilot, Google reviews, etc, indicate, the LGO (LG&SCO, or whatever it call itself this month) is completely rotten.

In 2014 I complained about equally rotten Haringey Council delaying my Housing Benefit, delaying my appeal, not replying to letters, etc, and the LGO fully found in my favour. It even recommended that I am paid £250, which rotten Haringey Council did. The LGO did its job properly (little I knew that what it does is doing the job properly for EXTREMELY few people, so that the LGO can proudly display these case studies as if to say to the general population "See? The LGO is reliable!".). The LGO found in my favour EVEN though, as stated in the decision letter, I had NOT been threatened with eviction.

Fast forward several years. The story with rotten Haringey Council repeats itself. It delays my Housing Benefit. It doesn't send my appeal. It keep saying : don't worry, the appeal is coming. It says the same lies to my MP. No appeal.

But this time Haringey Council not only is repeating the past faults and maladministration, it adds a LOT more faults, it's a LOT worse, and I AM getting evicted, because I am penniless and can't afford the rent.

I take months to carefully journal all the rubbish I go through. I state all the facts to the LGO. I present all the hard evidence. And what happens? Jackie Foster at the LGO is not going to investigate ANYTHING.

Anybody can see that the LGO is a sham. I am going to put this stuff on the internet, with the two decision compared side to side. This organization needs to be shut down, people are paying this foolish and useless circus act.

Such a pointless and unprofessional institution!

I would give no stars if it was possible. One of the worst public funded service I have come across, I have brought numerous complaints to this public funded service and every time they have done nothing, utter waste of publics money and don’t have the publics interest at all, just after a pay cheque at the end of the month to sit around and do nothing.

It is virtually impossible to have a complaint upheld against a Council because the LGSCO will find a way to justify the Council’s decision against common sense and fairness.
Save the taxpayers money and abolish them.

Waste of time. This organisation are simply a toothless cover for Government incompetence and underfunding for public services. LGCSO refused to even look in to a complaint that was upheld at Stage 2 by our council in to the illegal delay over issuing our child's EHCP. This inexplicably took almost 11 months, instead of the statutory five weeks.

In a much-trumpeted 'Focus Review' by the LGSCO's CEO in to SEN failings by councils, the organisation is apparently there to look in to and to hold councils to account over illegal inaction with regard to our vulnerable children. I was told by the LGCSO phone line to proceed with a complaint to them, even if the council had upheld my complaint at Stage 2. Despite our complaint meeting all the criteria for a reasonable complaint- the LGSCO classed it as 'resolved' by the council themselves- and would not even investigate. To cap it all, their case officer's response was rude and lacked any empathy or compassion for our situation and frustration.

No wonder Local Authorities keep treating children in this way. There is no accountability. We now realise from talking with other parents in similar situations around the country, as well as people who have worked in the world of SEN, that Local Authorities have a habit of delaying EHCPs expressly to deny children from the help they need for as long as possible, due to cost-cutting.

As a result of these delays, my daughter has no provision lined up for her next steps in education and we have to go to Tribunal which is now taking 12 months in waiting times, and which costs thousands of pounds in advocacy and input from private experts, since the LA refuse to update their reports.

This outcome was not what we expected after all the glossy promises from the Ombudsman. My aim was to officially call out illegal practices by our council who we pay to look after our children. A terrible disappointment.