Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the way the Council calculated the late Mrs B’s finances when charging for her care home fees. This is because the Council’s actions have not caused Mrs B’s estate a significant enough injustice to warrant an ombudsman investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr D complained the Council failed to properly assess his late grandmother’s finances and knew her family were in no position to apply for deputyship to act on her behalf. Mr D says the Council’s failure to apply for deputyship to manage Mrs B’s finances left her being overdrawn. Mr D says the Council should have arranged a deferred payment agreement and applied to the Court of Protection so it could manage her finances. Mr D says Mrs B’s estate should pay part of the debt the Council says it owes. Mr D says Mrs B’s estate will be insolvent if the Council pursue the full 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 effect 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 an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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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. The Council says when Mrs B moved into permanent residential care in 2020 she had capacity. In 2021 it assessed Mrs B as lacking capacity and asked her family to apply for deputyship to manage her finances, but they were not able to do this at the time. Based on Mrs B’s capital and finances it calculated in 2020, 2021 and 2022 that Mrs B had finances over the threshold for Council funding and she was responsible for paying the full cost of her care. Following her death in 2022 it completed a retrospective financial assessment in 2023 and concluded the same.
6. While Mr D says Mrs B’s estate will be insolvent if she has to pay her full care fees there is not enough evidence of fault with the way the Council has calculated Mrs B’s finances to warrant us investigating. There is no injustice to the estate from the Council not applying for deputyship and Mrs B could not enter into a deferred payment agreement because she lacked capacity to do so.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mr D’s complaint because the Council’s actions have not caused Mrs B’s estate a significant enough injustice to warrant an ombudsman investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman