Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council taking over funding for her late father’s care fees without telling her. This is because the claimed fault has not caused any significant injustice.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council taking over funding for her late father’s care fees without telling them.

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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 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 an investigation if we decide any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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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. In July 2022, Mrs X contacted the Council to ask about financial assistance with her father, Mr Z’s, care fees. Her father had been self-funding his care since August 2020 and had now reached the upper capital threshold for funding assistance. The Council completed a care needs assessment which confirmed Mr Z had eligible social care needs that required residential care, and a referral was made to the charging team to complete the financial assessment.
6. In September 2022, the Council begun the financial assessment. Mrs X told the Council Mr Z owned some land and so the Council confirmed the value of the land would need to be established to finalise eligibility for financial assistance.
7. At the end of September 2022, Mrs X told the Council they would continue to self-fund Mr Z’s care as they didn’t want to sell the land to fund the care. However, the Council had already sent payments to the care home the week prior to cover the cost of Mr Z’s care for the period July 2022 to end of September 2022. The Council sent the care home just under £11,000. The Council explained it did this as it had an obligation to pay the care home while the financial assessment was being completed to ensure the placement was not at risk.
8. Mrs X said they received a refund of just over £7700 from the care home and that she was happy to send this to the Council. However, she wants the Council to write off the remaining £3200 as it failed to tell her it was paying for Mr Z’s care until he died.
9. I asked Mrs X to confirm when Mr Z’s last payment was made to the care home. She confirmed the last payment was made in August 2022 and the care home never took the September 2022 payment. Mr Z continued to receive care and support from his care home up to the end of September 2022.
10. An investigation is not justified as the claimed fault (the Council not telling her that it had taken over funding) did not cause any significant injustice. This is because even if the Council had told Mrs X and she had the opportunity to tell the Council not to fund the placement, then it is the case that Mr Z would have needed to pay the care provider himself to cover the care received for the month of September 2022. This is the same amount as what the Council has paid and is recovering from Mrs X. Therefore, the only difference is that Mr Z is paying what he was responsible for to the Council instead of the care provider.
11. It would not be appropriate to recommend the Council waive £3200 because this would be putting Mr Z in a better financial position given he was responsible for paying for the full cost of his care.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the claimed fault has not caused any significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman