Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council delayed in sending invoices for her mother’s contribution towards her care home charges, leading her to receive a large invoice she did not expect. This is because an investigation by this office could not add to the explanation and responses already provided via the Council’s previous investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, whom I shall call Mrs X, complains the Council delayed in sending invoices for her mother’s (Mrs Y's) contribution towards her care home fees. Mrs X says this led to her being sent an invoice for £12,000 which she did not expect Mrs Y to have to pay in addition to the third-party top up Mrs X had agreed.

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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 effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. We do not start 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 organisation. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council. This included the charging information the Council provided and the complaint correspondence.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X complains the Council delayed in sending invoices for Mrs Y’s contribution towards her care home costs. Mrs X says the Council did not send an invoice until six months after her mother moved into the home. She then received an invoice for £12,000, which she had not expected. Mrs X says she had not realised Mrs Y had to pay her assessed contribution in addition to the third-party top up Mrs X had agreed to pay.
7. Mrs X says if she had been invoiced sooner she would have realised her mistake in not fully absorbing the financial information the Council had provided. Also, Mrs Y’s subsequent move to a new, more affordable care home, would not have been so traumatic.
8. The Council’s complaint responses and correspondence show it provided Mrs X with the relevant charging information, in writing, on three occasions prior to Mrs Y’s move to the care home in September 2020. Mrs X also signed Mrs Y’s support plan which had a full breakdown of the cost of the placement, the Council’s contribution and the third-party top up Mrs X agreed to pay. It also stated Mrs Y’s financial contribution was full cost, subject to a pending financial assessment.
9. The top up agreement Mrs X signed stated it was in addition to the resident’s assessed contribution which would be based on a financial assessment and the top up could not be funded by Mrs Y. It stated that unless you fully understood the terms of the agreement you should not sign it and financial advice should be sought before signing the form. It also provided a telephone number for advice, if required.
10. Mrs X says she did not fully absorb the information the Council provided. However, I can see no sign that this was due to fault by the Council.
11. Between September and December 2020, the Council asked Mrs X to provide information it needed to enable it to complete Mrs Y’s financial assessment. It again explained why this was required.
12. In October 2020, Mrs X told the Council she understood the information provided and what needed to be paid and did not need to discuss it further.
13. In December 2020, the Council had not received the information it needed to complete Mrs Y’s assessment. It invoiced Mrs Y the full cost, minus the third-party top up. This totalled just over £10,500.
14. In late December 2020, the Council received further information from Mrs X which enabled it to complete the assessment. The Council assessed Mrs Y as a full cost payer in late January 2021, based on that information. The Council acknowledged and apologised for its short delay in it completing the assessment as it took around 4 weeks to complete, due to staff absence. I do not see that this short delay caused any significant personal injustice and it had no impact on the outcome of the assessment.

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Final decision

15. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This is because an investigation by this office could not add to the response and explanation already provided via the Council’s investigation of the matter. It has shown it provided the relevant financial information prior to Mrs Y’s placement and later when requesting information from Mrs X for the financial assessment. There is no sign of any significant delay by the Council in completing the financial assessment. Between September and December 2020 it was waiting for information from Mrs X. The assessment was completed within weeks of the information being provided.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman