London Borough of Lambeth (23 003 531)
Category : Adult care services > Charging
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 02 Jul 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to provide information about a relative’s historical adult social care debt, because it is a late complaint and there is no good reason the complainant could not have made the complaint sooner.
The complaint
- Ms B says the Council was not helpful when she was trying to clarify if a relative’s debt was correct. The Council did not provide the information she asked for so that she could confirm the correct amount due and pay it. Ms B felt hounded, stressed, and exhausted. Ms B complained to the Council which it acknowledged but failed to give a full response.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms B has known about the disputed debt since at least February 2020. Therefore, Ms B’s complaint is late as explained in paragraph three; she has known about it for more than 12 months.
- Ms B was in correspondence with the Council and its solicitors between 2020 and 2022 but did not make a formal complaint to the Council until August 2022. It is reasonable to expect Ms B to have complained sooner; Ms B was able to communicate about the matter and says not getting answers to her questions was causing her stress.
- The Council has failed to reply to Ms B’s complaint. But it is not a good use of public resources to look at the Council’s complaints handling if we are not going to look at the substantive issue complained about. We will not therefore investigate this issue separately.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms B’s complaint because it is a late complaint to the Ombudsman and there is no good reason that she could not have complained sooner. The issues are not ongoing as Ms B settled the debt, though she continues to dispute the amount.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman