Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council wrongly calculated her father’s care home fees. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained the Council:
• wrongly calculated her late father, Mr F’s, care home charges when it took a property into account; and
• delayed in providing the final bill.
2. Mrs X says she and Mr F’s family have been caused distress and anxiety. She says there is not enough money in Mr F’s estate to pay the outstanding bill of around £14,700.

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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; or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(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.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mr F was admitted to a care home in 2017. The Council initially included a property in its calculations of how much Mr F could afford to contribute towards the costs of his care. In 2019, when it realised it should not have done so, it recalculated Mr F’s contribution, without including the property and backdated these calculations to 2017.
7. This meant that other than the first few weeks when he was still receiving Attendance Allowance, the Council calculated Mr F should pay from £167.21 in 2017 to £184.68 in 2020 weekly towards the cost of his care. These calculations took into account Mr F’s state and occupational pensions (£198 in 2017 rising to £215 in 2020) and ensured he was left with a weekly guaranteed minimum income of around £30 (this figure is set by the government). The assessments did not include a property.
8. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. This is because the evidence demonstrates the Council assessed Mr F’s finances in line with legislation. Mrs X says there were delays before the Council issued the final invoice. However, any injustice arising from this is not sufficient to start an investigation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman