Devon County Council (94B02128)

Adult care services     Maladministration causing injustice

29 May 1996

Miss A ceased her employment to care for her late mother, Mrs A, who was terminally ill. She complained that the Council delayed in submitting a claim for attendance allowance on behalf of Mrs A and in making an appeal for the Allowance to be backdated.

Officer B, a social worker, recognising the difficulties and emotional strain faced by Miss A, assumed responsibility for the completion of Mrs A's application for attendance allowance and for submitting it to the relevant office. She sent the form to the agency two months later, asking for the allowance to be backdated to the time Mrs A was discharged from hospital. Unfortunately, Officer B's knowledge of the procedure was flawed; she was unaware that entitlement to attendance allowance started from the date the claim was received by the agency, that it could not be backdated, and that appeals for a review of a decision needed to be made within three months of that decision.

The Ombudsman found that the delay in submitting the claim for attendance allowance was maladministration from which Miss A sustained injustice. The entitlement to attendance allowance was Mrs A's to meet the cost of the personal assistance she required because of her illness as well as additional comforts. But it was Miss A who provided that assistance having given up paid employment to do so and it was also Miss A who paid for the personal comforts out of her savings.

The Ombudsman said: “In recognition of that it seems to me reasonable to expect that Mrs A would have given her daughter the amount of the attendance allowance. I consider Miss A has sustained injustice from the non payment of attendance allowance to her mother over the delay period, as well as the non-payment of her own entitlement to invalid care allowance.”

In accordance with the Ombudsman's recommendations, the Council paid Miss A £583, representing the amount of the two allowances over the two-month delay period, plus £250 for her time and trouble in pursuing her complaint. It also reviewed its procedures and provided guidance to its social workers concerning benefit claims for clients.

Date Updated: 26/02/10