Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about care charges. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council has charged her relative, Ms Y, for domiciliary care that she was told would be free of charge for the first six weeks. She says this has caused distress and financial loss. She wants the Council to cancel the charges.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. A council has a duty to arrange care and support for those with eligible needs, and a power to meet both eligible and non-eligible needs in places other than care homes. When someone receives care at home the Council can ask the person to pay towards the support. The Council must complete a financial assessment to decide how much, if anything, the person can afford to pay.
6. The Council completed a needs assessment with Ms X. Following this, Ms X agreed to a home care package to meet her needs.
7. The Council has provided evidence it told Ms X and her son that the care was chargeable and that the charges would be backdated. This is evidenced in Ms X’s needs assessment which was sent to her, and the letter sent to Ms X’s son arranging the financial assessment.
8. Ms Y says the care provider told them the care would be free for six weeks during a visit to Ms X, but I have seen no evidence to support this. We cannot know what was said during the visit, and there is no record of this conversation. We can only consider available evidence and so any investigation would be unlikely to reach a finding on this point. There is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman