Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s financial assessment and his assessed contribution towards his social care package. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains about errors in the Council’s adult social care financial assessment. He says it has refused to take into account disability related expenditure and his living costs when calculating his assessed contribution to his care. He says the Council’s errors have led to him accruing a large debt. He wants the Council to take his living costs and disability related expenditure into account and reduce his assessed contribution to his care.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organization.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. Where someone receives adult social care, the Council must assess what, if anything, the person will pay towards that support. The rules for completing the financial assessment and calculating a person’s required contribution to the cost of their care are set out in law, regulations and the Council’s own policy. The Council will review a person’s financial assessment each year.
6. Mr X has been receiving care and support from the Council since 2019. The Council completed a review financial assessment for Mr X in March 2023. His assessed contribution increased as he had begun claiming state pension from October 2022.
7. Mr X says the financial assessment and his assessed contribution do not take into account all his living costs and disability related expenditure. The Council has asked Mr X for evidence of these costs so it can consider them and decide whether to amend his assessed contribution. Mr X has refused to provide evidence of these costs.
8. The Council has told Mr X and his representative on several occasions that it cannot consider specific reductions for disability related expenditure or increased living costs if he does not provide evidence of these costs.
9. We will not investigate this complaint as there is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions. The law allows the Council to take pension income into account during its financial assessment. The Council is also entitled to ask for evidence of Mr X’s stated outgoings before deciding whether to accept these as either disability related expenditure or additional household outgoings. The Council has explained its reasoning to Mr X and offered to meet with him to discuss it further. It has asked Mr X on several occasions to provide evidence of these costs so it can assess them, but Mr X has declined to do so.
10. The Council has made sufficient efforts to encourage Mr X to provide this information. It cannot consider these costs as part of its financial assessment without evidence of what costs Mr X is incurring. It is Mr X’s choice if he does not wish to provide this evidence, but further investigation is unlikely to find fault in the Council’s actions.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman