Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s assessment of his finances and disability-related expenditure. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council wrongly refused to consider the cost of massages and personal training sessions as disability-related expenditure (DRE) when it assessed how much he should pay towards the cost of his care, in early 2025. Because of this he says he experienced financial loss. Mr X wants the Council to:
• allow the costs as DRE and put in place a formal agreement to ensure it fairly considers his financial assessments in future; or
• pay a large financial settlement to allow him to pay for the support he needs without the Council’s involvement.

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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 or continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
3. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by the complainant.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Councils can take disability-related benefit into account when calculating how much someone should pay towards the cost of their care. When doing so, a council should make an assessment to allow the person to keep enough benefit to pay for necessary disability-related expenditure (DRE) to meet any needs it is not meeting.
7. The Council decided based on the evidence available to it that it should not class the costs Mr X is claiming as DRE. This is a decision the Council was entitled to make, and the Ombudsman would not be able to question a Council decision made without fault. There is not enough evidence we would find fault with the Council’s decision making if we were to investigate. The Council told Mr X it needs more evidence to show the costs he is claiming are essential disability-related expenditure. The Council was entitled to ask for more evidence and Mr X did not provide it.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to justify an investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman