Worcestershire County Council (22 006 582)
Category : Adult care services > Assessment and care plan
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 07 Sep 2022
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council requesting documentation Mrs C’s representatives say does not exist. This is because we cannot interpret law and it would be reasonable for Mrs C’s representatives to challenge the Council’s decision to include her property in her financial assessment in a court.
The complaint
- Mrs C’s representatives complain they have provided the Council with all the Trust documents they have, a valuation of Mrs C’s property and a completed TR1 form and do not have a deed of Trust the Council has requested. Mrs C’s representatives say the Council has wrongly included her property in the financial assessment and in accordance with the Trust, it should be disregarded.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The dispute arises because the Council has requested documentation Mrs C’s representatives say does not exist. It is not open for us to question the Council’s decision to request documentation or question that the Trust exists without deeds as Mrs C’s representatives have advised. The complexities of Trust Law, Mrs C’s property, the creation of the discretionary Trust and its application, are only for a court to interpret.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs C’s complaint because it would be reasonable for her representatives to ask the court to consider whether the Council’s decision to charge Mrs C for her care based on information it has about the Trust has been interpreted wrongly.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman