Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council charging 8% interest on his mother’s care costs. This is because it is unlikely we would find fault with the Council’s actions. We are also unable to investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council failing to update him on accumulating costs of the care as this is a late complaint and there is no good reason for us to investigate this now.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council has applied the wrong interest rate to money owed by his mother for the cost of her care. Mr X says the Council has applied 8% rate of interest to money owed under a deferred payment arrangement following his mother’s death whilst its website says the rate should be under 1%. Mr X also says the Council failed to provide him with regular statements showing the cost of his mother’s care.
2. Mr X says the Council’s actions have caused him significant distress and he would have found another way to pay for her care if he had been aware of the interest rate.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Mr X’s mother agreed to pay for her care via a deferred payment arrangement in 2012. This meant that she would pay for care fees using money form her estate on her death.
8. The agreement said the Council would:

“charge interest at an annual rate equivalent to the County Court Judgement rate from time to time in force from the day after the date that the exempt period ends”

9. The County Court Judgement rate of interest is 8%.
10. Legislation came into force in 2015 which meant deferred payments for care were available across the whole of England. Previously local councils had discretion to offer these payment arrangements but were not obliged to do so.
11. The Care Act 2014 (Transitional Provision) 2015 Order 2015 states that deferred payment arrangements entered into prior to the legislation coming into force would not be covered by this legislation. Part 4, paragraph 3 of the Order says that existing deferred payment arrangements “shall continue to apply on the terms and conditions which pertained to it immediately before the coming into force of the regulations”.
12. This means that the agreement Mr X’s mother had signed up to continued including the agreed interest rates. Therefore, there we are unlikely to find fault with the Council’s decision to charge 8% interest on the money owed for Mr X’s mother care costs.
13. Mr X has been aware for some time that the Council has not been sending him statements showing his mother’s care costs. Therefore this is a late complaint. We have the power to disregard this restriction where there are good reasons. However, I cannot see any reason why Mr X could not have raised issues with the Council if he was unhappy it was not updating him about the accumulating costs of his mother’s care.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is unlikely we would find fault with the Council’s decision to charge 8% interest for his mother’s care costs. We cannot investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to provide regular updates about his mother’s care costs as this is a late complaint and there are no good reasons for us to investigate now.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman