Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about her late mother’s care charges. The complaint is late and there are no good reasons to consider it now.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about:
• the Council’s charges for care of her late mother up to 2022 and its poor communications on this;
• the Council’s provision of information and breaches of data protection law and;
• errors on an invoice issued by the Council in August 2024.

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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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended).
3. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide there is another body better placed to consider this complaint. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
4. The Information Commissioner's Office considers complaints about freedom of information. Its decision notices may be appealed to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). So where we receive complaints about freedom of information, we normally consider it reasonable to expect the person to refer the matter to the Information Commissioner.
5. The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint unless we are satisfied the organisation knows about the complaint and has had an opportunity to investigate and reply. However, we may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to notify the organisation of the complaint and give it an opportunity to investigate and reply. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(5), section 34(B)6)

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How I considered this complaint

6. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Mrs X contacted the Council with concerns about charging in 2019 and in the years prior to this. I will not investigate this aspect of her complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons to disapply the time limit.
9. It is not a good use of resources to investigate the Council’s complaint handling in isolation when I will not investigate the substantive matter.
10. It is reasonable to expect Mrs X to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about matters related to the Council’s data handling. The ICO is better placed to consider such matters.
11. Mrs X is concerned about anomalies on an invoice recently received. It is reasonable for Mrs X to first give the Council an opportunity to investigate and reply, therefore I will not investigate this aspect of her complaint.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate this complaint because it is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman