Cornwall Council (22 011 936)
Category : Adult care services > Charging
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Apr 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council assessed Mr X’s adult social care contributions. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complained about the outcome of his adult social care financial assessment. He said the Council did not consider the cost of his gas or electric. He said he also needed to pay for overnight care. Mr X said the Council had left him without enough money to live on.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The Council completed a review of Mr X’s financial assessment after he appealed. In the review, it said it did not include gas or electric costs in its assessment because Mr X had not provided evidence of how much he spent on these. It said Mr X was not assessed as needing overnight care. It offered to review this if Mr X’s needs had changed. It said Mr X chose not to have an assessment. The Council said it did not consider his contribution had caused financial hardship.
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about how the Council completed his financial assessment. The Council completed Mr X’s financial assessment based on the information he provided. That was in line with the statutory guidance on financial assessments. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman