Summary: There was fault by the Council as it charged Mr Y for care at a day centre when he did not attend. Amending the invoice for the charges remedies the financial injustice for Mr Y and the Council should also consider if others have been affected by the same error. There was no other fault by the Council in charging for the placement.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Mrs X, complains for her adult son, Mr Y. Mrs X complains the Council did not tell them of the cost of his care services before they began.
2. Mrs X also complains the Council has wrongly assessed the contribution he should make to the costs of his care services.
3. Mrs X says this is causing them stress and financial problems as her son’s care costs are greater than his income.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We cannot question whether a council’s decision is right or wrong simply because the complainant disagrees with it. We must consider whether there was fault in the way the decision was reached. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with a council’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)
6. We may investigate matters coming to our attention during an investigation, if we consider that a member of the public who has not complained may have suffered an injustice as a result. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26D and 34E, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

7. I read the papers put in by Mrs X and discussed the complaint with her.
8. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and any supporting documents it provided.
9. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

Law and Guidance

10. Where a Council arranges care and support to meet a person’s needs, it may charge the adult, except where the Council is required to provide care and support free of charge. Where the Council has decided to charge it must carry out a financial assessment of what a person can afford to pay and once complete, it must provide a written record of that assessment to the person.
11. People receiving local authority-arranged care and support other than in a care home need to retain a certain level of income to cover their living costs. Under the Care Act 2014, charges must not reduce people’s income below a certain amount but local authorities can allow people to keep more of their income if they wish. This is a weekly amount, called the Minimum income guarantee.
12. If a council takes a disability benefit into account when calculating how much a person should contribute towards the cost of their care, they must also assess disability-related expenditure (DRE) in the financial assessment.  This is because the Care Act statutory guidance says councils must leave individuals with enough money to pay for necessary disability related expenditure to meet any needs not being met by the council. 

Cost of day centre

13. Mrs X says the Council did not tell them of the cost of Mr Y’s day centre place before it began.
14. Mr Y’s care and support plan included a placement at a day centre, which started in September 2018. The Council says that it emailed its charging policy to Mrs X in April 2018 and again in October 2018 when it told her that any charge would be based on Mr Y’s income.
15. The Council did a financial assessment in November 2018. The Council has said it discussed charging with Mrs X before the placement. However, normally financial assessments take place once services start as many planned placements change.
16. The Council told Mrs X of the charge (£17.25 per week) in January 2019. The Council has said that in line with Council policy, it did not backdate charges to service commencement but started from January 2019 when the Council told Mrs X of the charge.
17. Mrs X is correct, the Council did not tell her of the exact charge for the day centre before the placements began. However, she was aware that there would be a charge and the placement was free for 4 months until the Council told her of the cost. If Mrs X did not wish to carry on with the placement due to the cost then she could have stopped it at this point. I can find no evidence of fault on this point.

Charge amount

18. The Council has discretion to charge for care and support outside a care home. After charging the person must be left with at least the basic level of Income Support plus a buffer of 25%.
19. I have looked at the financial assessment carried out in November 2018. This identified that Mr Y received £212 a week in benefits and the Council set aside £132 as the guaranteed minimum income. The weekly charge was assessed as £17 per week. This was revised to £15 per week and backdated to the start of charging after Mrs X complained.
20. In April 2019 the Council assessed the charge was as £20 per week. The day care centre closed in April 2020 due to COVID-19. In April 2020 the Council reassessed the weekly charge as £5 per week as Mr Y turned 25 years old and the minimum income he could keep increased to £151.The Council wrote in November 2020 to say that Mr Y owed £1022.
21. Mrs X has made several complaints that I intend to consider in turn. First, Mrs X says the financial contribution calculated by the Council is wrong, as it went from £20 to £5. The reason for this is that when Mr Y turned 25 the minimum income he should keep went up. I can see no evidence of fault on this point and cannot see why the Council would backdate the reduction in the charge before Mr Y’s 25th birthday.
22. Secondly, Mrs X disputes the £1022 invoice. Mrs X says that the Council has charged Mr Y for care during the holidays when the day centre was not open. I can see that no charge was made for Easter and May half term holiday in 2019 and from March 2020 onwards. However, all other weeks have been charged for. In response to my enquiries, the Council has confirmed that Mr Y was wrongly charged during the school holidays. This was fault. The Council now amended the invoice to remove the charges for school holidays but other than this the invoice appears correct.
23. Thirdly, Mrs X complains about the Disability Related Expenses (DRE) the Council have allowed. I can see the Council has allowed expenses towards laundry, clothing, bedding, wipes, gloves and aprons. The Council also allowed a contribution towards a wet room until April 2021, when 10 years from the works starting elapsed. The items the Council did not accept were £50 per month towards designer clothing but it allowed £5 per week for clothing. The Council has said that it has allowed £4 per week for bedding, but if Mrs X has receipts to show she has spent a higher amount this could be considered.
24. I can see no evidence of fault in the Council’s assessment of Mr Y’s DRE. I can understand that Mrs X remains dissatisfied as it has not allowed all the costs she wants but it has considered her request and explained why it did not allow some costs.

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Agreed action

25. The Council amends an invoice to remove charges relating to a period when Mr Y did not use the service he contributes financially towards. (The Council has already carried out this part of the remedy.)
26. The Council should review service users in similar situations to ensure that others have not been disadvantaged by the same error in charging for the school holidays. If errors are discovered, these should be corrected and the service users informed within 3 months of the date of the decision on this complaint.

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Final decision

27. I have completed my investigation of this complaint. This complaint is upheld as there was fault by the Council. Revising the incorrect invoice remedies the injustice caused.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman