Summary: We found fault by the Council in its communication with Mrs Y about charges. The Council has already taken appropriate action to remedy the injustice. There was no fault in the Council’s assessment of Mrs Y’s disability expenses.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained Durham County Council (the Council) did not include appropriate information on invoices for social care charges for his relative Mrs Y and failed to support her when arrears built up.
2. Mr X also complained about the Council’s consideration of Mrs Y’s disability expenses.
3. Mr X said the Council’s alleged fault caused avoidable distress and a financial loss because of avoidable overdraft charges.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If we find fault causing injustice which a council has not remedied, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
5. 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)
6. Mr X complained to us in May 2022 about invoices the Council sent in 2017. He also complained to us about correspondence from the Council within 12 months of his complaint to us. Complaints about invoices before May 2021 are late and Mr X gave us no reason to explain why he did not complain to us within 12 months of the earlier invoices. I have investigated matters from January 2021 because that is when Mr X or Mrs Y contacted the Council about the distress caused by payment reminders.
7. We provide a free service, but we 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, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
8. If we are satisfied with an organisation’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)

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How I considered this complaint

9. I considered Mr X’s complaint, the Council’s response and documents set out in this statement. I discussed the complaint with Mr X
10. Mr 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

Relevant law and guidance

11. Councils can charge people for care and support they arrange. They need to carry out a financial assessment applying national charging rules.
12. Disability Related Expenditure (DRE) are expenses a person has to pay connected to their disability. They are an allowance in a person’s financial assessment and reduce their weekly charge. DRE can include specialist items and services such as wheelchairs. They may also include extra heating or laundry costs, equipment and aids and regular payments such as wheelchair insurance and gardening costs. Statutory guidance says:
• A council must leave a person with enough money to pay for necessary DRE to meet needs that are not being met by the local authority
• The care plan may be a starting point for considering DRE, but councils need to be flexible. (Care and Support Statutory Guidance Annex C, 39 and 41)

What happened

13. Mrs Y receives care and support from the Council for which she pays a charge.
14. Mrs Y complained to the Council in March 2022 about invoices and other issues. The Council’s response in April said:
• It apologised in January 2021 for the reminders and enclosed a statement of account.
• In March 2021, it sent a consolidated invoice for the total owed and explained providing Mrs Y kept to the agreed payment plan, there would be no further reminders. The Council said it was sorry for the distress caused and agreed it could have sent a consolidated invoice sooner.
• Invoices show fees for the latest four weekly charging period and do not state the total fees outstanding.
• It accepted the previous statements of account it issued were unclear and may have caused confusion. It reviewed these and changed them, so they now showed the most important information including a rolling balance in a logical format.
• If a person did not quote an invoice number when making a payment, that payment was allocated to the oldest outstanding invoice. This could result in reminders for more recent invoices being issued.
• Payment made on 4 April 2022 did not even cover the cost of current charges. She needed to contact the income team to discuss a payment plan
• The Council would consider additional DRE for laundry and stairlift costs. Mrs Y already had an allowance for fuel. Boiler and insurance costs were not disability expenses. Mrs Y needed to provide receipts for a reassessment.
• It was not the Council’s responsibility to prevent Mrs Y becoming overdrawn. She was responsible for managing her finances.
15. The Council’s complaint response included a statement of account which set out every invoice and every payment made in date order and included the rolling balance outstanding. It showed the debt built up because of insufficient and/or missed payments.
16. In April 2022, the Council completed a financial assessment for Mrs Y’s care charges. The outcome was to add DRE allowances for a stairlift (this was backdated to April 2021), for special dietary needs, for laundry and for gardening. These allowances brought down the amount Mrs Y would have paid towards her care costs.

Findings

17. I have only considered events from January 2021 for reasons explained in paragraphs five and six.

Failure to include appropriate information on invoices or to provide support when a debt built up

18. The Council’s complaint response accepted it was at fault in its communication with Mrs Y (a failure to send the consolidated invoice sooner). I also consider this was fault causing avoidable distress. The Council has already apologised and sent a full written explanation of all charges Mrs Y has had since she started paying for her care. This remedies the injustice.
19. There are no grounds for me to recommend a waiver of any of the fees or for the Council to pay Mrs Y’s overdraft fees. The care charges were due and the Council’s fault did not cause the overdraft fees, it was the failure to ensure sufficient funds in the account. This was not the Council’s responsibility.

Disability Related Expenditure

20. The Council offered to consider Mrs Y’s DRE when she provided evidence. A further financial assessment has now happened and this includes a DRE allowance for laundry and a stairlift. The Council acted in line with Annex C of Care and Support Statutory Guidance so there was no fault.

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Final decision

21. I have found fault by the Council in its communication with Mrs Y about charges. The Council has already taken appropriate action to remedy the injustice.
22. There is no fault in the Council’s assessment of Mrs Y’s DRE.
23. I have completed the investigation.

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Parts of the complaint that I did not investigate

24. I did not investigate a complaint about a failure to provide an annual financial statement because there is no fault by the Council in failing to provide it. The relevant provision in the Care Act 2014 is not yet in force.
25. I did not investigate a complaint about a social worker not returning calls because there is not enough injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman