Summary: We will not investigate this late complaint about charges for Miss X’s father’s care. There is not good reason for the delay in bringing the matter to the Ombudsman.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained about discrepancies in her late father’s (Mr Y’s) finances, including payments she believes were wrongly made to his care home. She also complained about a lack of any contract between the home and Mr Y, nor with his family about top-up fees. Miss X says the matter has caused her significant distress and she wants a refund of the money she believes was wrongly taken from her father’s account.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 or care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, 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 law says people must bring complaints to us within 12 months of first becoming aware of the matter, unless there are good reasons for delay.
6. Miss X first raised her concerns about her father’s finances with the Council in August 2021. The Council took seven months to respond, which I have taken into account when considering the timescales involved.
7. Miss X says subsequent delays have been due to her having been in contact with legal advice services and her MP, as well as making requests for information from Mr Y’s care home which she says were not responded to.
8. It is not necessary to collect evidence before bringing a complaint to the Ombudsman, in particular where this serves to delay the matter significantly. We have the powers to obtain all information we consider relevant.
9. Miss X had sufficient concern in late 2021 and she could have contacted us about the matter in early 2022. A further two years have passed, which means information we may have wished to gather may now be unavailable and any relevant recollections are less reliable. We could not come to sound conclusions now due to the passage of time, and I am not satisfied the reasons Miss X provided for the delay are sufficient to explain the entire period. We will not now investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Miss X’s late complaint because there is not a good reason for the delay in her bringing the matter to Ombudsman.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman