Summary: The Ombudsman will not investigate Mr B’s complaint about the actions of the Council. This is because it is unlikely he would find any evidence of fault.

The complaint

1. Mr B says the Council should agree a discretionary disregard of his mother’s, Mrs C’s, property if she moves into a residential care home because it is his only home.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe:

• it is unlikely we would find fault, or
• the fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• the injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• it is unlikely we could add to any previous investigation by the Council, or
• it is unlikely further investigation will lead to a different outcome, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered the information Mr B provided. I sent Mr B a copy of my draft decision for comment.

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What I found

4. Mr B contacted the Council in July asking it to say whether it will apply a discretionary disregard to Mrs C’s property if she were to move into a residential care home. Mr B says he needs to know this information so he, as Mrs C’s attorney for her wellbeing and finances, can make informed decisions about her finances. Mr B says during a visit from Council staff in 2016, he was advised it would disregard the property in such circumstances.
5. The Council requested further information about Mr B’s circumstances in August. Mr B provided the requested information and asked the Council to clarify in writing it would disregard Mrs C’s property if she were to move into a residential care home.
6. The Council responded in November. It explained Mr B’s question appeared to be in two parts. It said, firstly, if Mrs C wanted or needed to move into a residential care home and her property is suitable for a Deferred Payment Agreement (DPA) it will offer one. If agreed all charges will be secured against the property and are liable for repayment after 90 days of death or on sale of the property whichever occurs first. If the debt can be paid off without selling the property a sale would not be necessary.
7. Secondly, with regard to the discretionary disregard, the Council explained it could not make a hypothetical decision based on current circumstances and until such time it makes a decision based on Mrs C’s care needs and finances it cannot say what its decision will be.
8. The Care Act 2014 says a property should be disregarded if it is occupied by a family member who is:

• aged 60 or over;
• is a child of the resident aged under 18;
• is incapacitated

9. Mr B does not meet the criteria for an automatic disregard so will need to wait until such time the Council completes its assessments and decides whether there are any discretionary reasons why it should disregard Mrs C’s property for the purpose of charging for her residential care. The Ombudsman could not say it is fault of the Council not to provide Mr B with the answer he wants now.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint. This is because it is unlikely he would find any evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman