Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council (24 005 231)
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to provide information about care charges when he moved to supported living accommodation. The Council has already waived the care fees for the period before it provided costs information in their entirety and further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
The complaint
- Mr X complained the Council did not tell him about care charges that would apply when he moved to supported living accommodation. By the time he became aware of the charges, arrears had built up.
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)
- 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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
What happened
- The Council assessed Mr X for supported living in 2020 and agreed to put him on the waiting list. In 2021 a place became available, and the Council carried out a further assessment. Mr X said he wanted to continue a privately arranged care package after the move. The Council has no record of any discussions about costs in 2020 or 2021.
- The Council reviewed Mr X’s care in June 2022. It told him he was required to pay a standard four hours of care weekly, which ensured any emergency needs during the night were covered. It explained Mr X could not continue to live there unless he agreed to pay this. The record says Mr X “seemed fine” with that now he understood the reason for the charge.
- In its complaint response, in March 2024, the Council accepted it had no record it had given Mr X information about the charge for the standard four hours of care before June 2022. Therefore, it agreed to waive the charge from the date Mr X moved to the supported accommodation to June 2022. It has provided evidence those charges were removed from Mr X’s account.
My assessment
- We would not usually consider complaints made more than 12 months after the events complained about unless there are good reasons for doing so. In this case, Mr X was aware of the issue with the charges in June 2022, but did not make a formal complaint to the Council until early 2024. He said he had been trying to resolve the matter with the help of the Citizen’s Advice Bureau in the intervening period. I am not persuaded he could not have complained to us sooner and therefore I consider the complaint is late.
- Further, if we investigated it is likely we would find fault for the lack of costs information prior to June 2022 and that we would have recommended a modest payment to reflect the worry and stress caused by receiving a large bill for the arrears that had built up. However, the Council has already waived the costs for the period prior to June 2022. Therefore, we will not consider this complaint further because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman