Summary: There is no fault by the Council. Mr X says that his late mother agreed before she went in a care home that some of her savings could be used for work to her house and as the Council hasn’t allowed this, it has caused a financial injustice. The Council could not consider the intended future use of savings when carrying out a financial assessment for care home costs.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Mr X, complains the Council has not disregarded some of his late mother’s savings to pay for property maintenance. Mr X says that work is needed to the house, which his mother verbally agreed to, before she went into a residential care home.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I read the papers put in by Mr X and discussed the complaint with him.
5. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and any supporting documents it provided.
6. Mr X and the organisation had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

7. The Care Act 2014 (section 14 and 17) provides a legal framework for charging for care and support. It enables a council to decide whether to charge a person when it is arranging to meet their care and support needs, or a carer’s support needs. The charging rules for residential care are in the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 and councils should have regard to the Care and Support Statutory Guidance.
8. When the Council arranges a care home placement, it must follow the regulations when undertaking a financial assessment to decide how much a person must pay towards the cost of their residential care.
9. The financial limit, known as the ‘upper capital limit’, exists for the purposes of the financial assessment. This sets out at what point a person can get council support to meet their eligible needs. People who have over the upper capital limit must pay the full cost of their residential care home fees. Once their capital has reduced to less than the upper capital limit, they only have to pay an assessed contribution towards their fees. Where a person’s resources are below the lower capital limit they will not need to contribute to the cost of their care and support from their capital.
10. Mr X’s mother went into residential care. Mr X said before she did so, she verbally agreed to pay for some works to her house, which Mr X now lives in. Mr X’s mother died before the works were carried out. Mr X said the bathroom has been replaced but he does not have any invoices for this.
11. Mr X’s mother was charged in full for residential care as her savings were above the upper capital limit. Mr X wants the Council to disregard the money that should have been used for the work to the house from his mother’s savings, which would reduce the financial contribution towards the care home costs.
12. I find no fault by the Council. The money has not yet been spent on house maintenance and there is no written evidence that this was what was intended. So, there would be no reason for this capital not to be included in the financial assessment.

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Final decision

13. I have completed my investigation of this complaint. This complaint is not upheld, as there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman