Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s charges for Mr X’s mother’s care. This is because Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s care charges is a late complaint and there is no good reason for us to consider it now. We will also not investigate the delays by the Council in pursuing the family for the debt as the Council has already offered a suitable remedy and there is nothing further we could achieve by investigating the complaint.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council charged his mother for care she did not want. Mr X says he disputed the bill with the Council in 2017 and assumed the matter was settled until a debt recovery agency contacted him in 2021 to recover the debt.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
3. The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with an investigation if we decide further investigation would not lead to a different outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code and Guidance on Remedies.

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My assessment

6. The Council wrote to Mr X in August 2017 to explain that it had reduced some of his mother’s care charges but that there was still an outstanding debt owed for care provided. The Council said Mr X could complain to the Ombudsman if he remained unhappy with its response.
7. Mr X says he wrote to the Council and threatened to take legal action if it continued to pursue the debt. He says he did not hear from the Council again and so he assumed the matter was settled.
8. It was open to Mr X to complain to the Ombudsman in August 2017 if he was unhappy with the Council’s response to his complaint. Mr X did not complain to the Ombudsman until October 2021. Therefore, for the reasons set out in paragraph 2, the complaint about the Council charging for Mr X’s mother’s care is a late complaint and we cannot investigate.
9. We have discretion to set aside this restriction where we decide there are good reasons. In this case I have decided not to exercise discretion because it is reasonable to expect Mr X to have complained sooner. Whilst I understand that the Council may not have replied to Mr X’s letter threatening legal action its lack of response was not confirmation that the debt had been cancelled nor was it acceptance by the Council that it had wrongly charged for care.
10. We can consider the delays in the Council pursuing the debt. The Council has accepted that there was a delay in it pursuing the debt. It has agreed to reduce the debt owed by £1000 to recognise this. That is a suitable remedy which recognises the impact of the delay on Mr X and there is nothing further we could achieve by investigating this complaint.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the complaint about the Council’s care charges is a late complaint and there is no good reason for us to consider it now. We will also not investigate the delays by the Council in pursuing the family for the debt as the Council has already offered a suitable remedy and there is nothing further we could achieve by investigating the complaint.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman