Summary: Mr X complained the Council failed to inform him of a debt owed from his deceased mother’s estate for care fee contributions in 2018. The Council was at fault for failing to update Mr X’s address on its systems after he had notified it of the change. It was also at fault for delays in progressing the debt in line with its policy. The Council has already offered to reduce the debt, apologised for the delay, and has shown evidence of improvements to its service which is sufficient to remedy any injustice cased.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the Council’s management of a debt relating to his deceased mother’s estate. Mr X says the Council failed to inform him of the debt, sent invoices to an old address, and did not attempt to contact him by any other means prior to sending the debt to a bailiff to recover the amount owed.
2. Mr X says the matter has caused him distress and frustration.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
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)
5. 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

6. I spoke with Mr X about the complaint and considered information he provided.
7. I considered information provided by the Council.
8. Mr X and the Council had the opportunity to comment on the draft decision. I considered comments received before I made a final decision.

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What I found

Council’s debt recovery policy

9. The Council has a debt recovery policy, titled the “Corporate Credit Policy”.
10. The policy’s “Standard Collection Routines” outlines what action it will take for unpaid invoices:
• 3 days overdue: automatic reminder letter;
• 10 days overdue: final demand sent by Debt Recovery staff;
• 17 days overdue: notice of intended County Court proceedings sent; and
• 21 days overdue: Letter before action issued.

What happened

11. Mr X’s mother, Mrs Y, received care in her home between 2014 and 2018 which was funded by the Council. Mrs Y paid a contribution towards the cost of the care to the Council. The Council says a direct debit was in place from 2015 to pay the contribution. Mr X says he informed the Council in 2017 and again in 2018 that his brother, Mr Z, was managing the contributions on behalf of Mrs Y.
12. In May 2018 Mrs Y moved to live in a care home. She paid a contribution towards the cost of her care until August 2018 when she became fully self-funded and paid the care home directly. In June 2018 the Council found the direct debt in place for Mrs Y’s care contribution had been cancelled. The Council sent three invoices regarding the outstanding amounts between June 2018 and November 2018, but these were sent to Mr X’s old address. Invoices show Mrs Y owed £4,112.78 towards the cost of her care to the Council for this period
13. In December 2018 the Council says Mr X requested a Deferred Payment Agreement (DPA) which included details of his current address. Mrs Y died several days after the request was received. The Council said Mrs Y owed £711.96 from the DPA period in addition to the £4,112.78 already due.
14. Shortly after Mrs Y died, Mr X says he informed the Council of a change of address through the “Tell us Once” service.
15. In February 2021 the Council sent a summary statement of the debt to Mr X’s old address.
16. In August 2021 the Council instructed its contracted enforcement agents to recover the debt. The enforcement agents sent a letter to Mr X’s old address in mid-August 2021.
17. In September 2021 the enforcement agents contacted Mr X by phone, informing him that a debt of £4,950.52 was owed from Mrs Y’s estate. Mr X said he was unaware of the debt and contacted the Council. The enforcement agents returned the matter to the Council and ended their involvement.
18. In February 2022 Mr Y complained to the Council. He told the Council:
• He had not been made aware of the debt;
• The call from enforcement agents was distressing;
• Bills for the debt had been sent to the wrong address; and
• No efforts were made to contact him prior to enforcement agents calling him.
19. In April 2022 the Council responded to Mr Y’s complaint. The Council:
• Apologised for the poor experience he had with the enforcement agency;
• Said it was conducting a review of its approach to debts for adult social care which relied less on automated systems;
• Removed £711.96 from the debt in acknowledgement that the invoice for this had been sent to his old address after it was aware of his new address. It said £4,112.78 was still owed.
• Said it had not been informed of Mr X’s change of address prior to his mother’s death and had no record of a “Tell us Once” notification.
• None of its invoice or reminder letters had been returned from the address, so it was unaware that Mr X had not received these.
• Apologised for the delay between Mrs Y dying and Mr X being notified of the debt. It explained part of the reason for the delay was due to resource constraints in the Council and the suspension of debt recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
20. Mr X remained dissatisfied with the Council’s response and brought his complaint to us.
21. In response to our enquiries, the Council reiterated its rationale from its stage 1 response to Mr X. It also said:
• It was not its standard practice or its policy to contact service users or representatives via telephone about debt and had progressed the matter to its contracted enforcement agents after it had not received a response.
• Provided evidence of its updated procedures, which includes notifying executors of deceased service users in a timely manner of outstanding balances. It said the new system also includes task reminders to staff to ensure correspondence is sent in a timely manner to prevent delay.

My findings

22. We cannot investigate complaints about matters beyond 12 months unless there are good reasons. Whilst events in this decision relate to matters dating to 2018, Mr X was not aware of these until September 2021. I have therefore decided to exercise discretion and look at events back to 2018.
23. Mrs Y died in December 2018. The Council accepted it was aware of the change of Mr X’s address at around the same time. However, it continued to send him reminders for the debt to his old address and did not update its systems to reflect his new information. This is poor record keeping and is fault.
24. The Council said it had not sent the matter to its contracted enforcement agents sooner because of the COVID-19 pandemic and because of resource constraints within its team. However, there was a period of 15 months between the time Mrs Y died and the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst debt recovery at the Council was suspended for part of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a further 11 months before the Council wrote to Mr X again and a further six months before the matter was sent to enforcement agents. This is delay and is fault.
25. The above faults resulted in a significant delay in informing Mr X of the outstanding debt. It caused him distress and uncertainty due to being contacted by enforcement agents.
26. Whilst this is the case, the amount owed for the care Mrs Y received remains. The Council has reduced the amount owed by £711.96 to £4,112.78 in recognition of its poor record keeping. It has already apologised for the delay between Mrs Y dying and informing Mr X of the matter. I consider these appropriate actions to remedy any injustice caused by the faults.
27. The Council have also provided us with evidence of service improvements it has made by changes to its debt collection process for adult social care. This is appropriate action to ensure the fault does not reoccur.

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Final decision

28. I have completed my investigation. I have found fault and the Council have made an appropriate offer to remedy the injustice caused and has made service improvements to prevent recurrence of the fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman