Summary: Mrs X complained about the Council’s delay in completing financial assessment for Mr Y and telling him how much he should contribute towards his care costs. We found fault with the Council. This fault caused injustice to Mr Y and Mrs X. The Council has agreed to apologise, discuss with Mrs X details of Mr Y’s repayment plan and make a symbolic payment to recognise Mr Y’s distress.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the Council’s significant delay to complete her grandson’s (Mr Y) financial assessment and provide information in writing about his contributions for care charges. Mrs X says that due to the Council’s failings a large debt accrued which Mr Y will struggle to pay due to other debts and financial commitments.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused significant injustice, or that could cause injustice to others in the future we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. 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)
4. When considering complaints we make findings based on the balance of probabilities. This means that we look at the available relevant evidence and decide what was more likely to have happened.
5. 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(1), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

6. As explained in paragraph three of this decision we would normally investigate events which happened within 12 months from when the complainant came to us. Mrs X came to us in May 2025. I have decided there are good reasons to extend my investigation to April 2023 as:
• Mrs X only found out about the Council’s failings in March 2024, when the Council contacted her about charging for Mr Y’s care services;
• Mrs X complained to the Council in the late summer of 2024. She came to us shortly after receiving the Council’s final complaint response in April 2025. Mrs X should not bear negative consequences of the Council’s delays with handling her complaint.

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How I considered this complaint

7. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
8. Mrs X and the Council 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

Law and guidance

9. A council has a duty to arrange care and support for those with eligible needs, and a power to meet both eligible and non-eligible needs in places other than care homes. A council can choose to charge for non-residential care following a person’s needs assessment. Where it decides to charge, the council must follow the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 and have regard to the Care Act statutory guidance. (Care Act 2014, section 14 and 17)
10. Where a local authority has decided to charge, it must carry out a financial assessment of what the person can afford to pay and, once complete, it must give a written record of that assessment to the person. This could be provided alongside a person’s care and support plan or separately, including via online means. (Care and Support statutory guidance paragraph 8.16)
11. Financial information and advice is fundamental to enabling people to make well-informed choices about how they pay for their care. The local authority service should include the following aspects of financial information and advice:
• understanding care charges
• ways to pay
• money management
• making informed financial decisions
• facilitating access to independent financial information and advice
• the cap on care costs (Care and Support statutory guidance paragraphs 3.36 and 3.41)
12. Information and advice should only be judged as clear if it is understood and able to be acted upon by the individual receiving it. (Care and Support statutory guidance paragraph 3.19)

Council’s policy

13. The Council’s Adult Social Care Client Contributions Policy including Financial Assessments states: “The Council’s aim is to ensure that people are aware of the cost of their care and any personal contribution prior to care commencing. We will therefore refer people for a financial assessment when it is probable that they are likely to be eligible for care, rather than waiting for the care and support plan to be finalised.”

What happened

14. Mr Y is autistic and has specific mental health difficulties. Mrs X supports him with his finances.
15. In mid-April 2023 the Council carried out a care needs assessment for Mr Y. In the care needs assessment document the Council explained that if Mr Y was deemed to meet eligibility criteria, the Council would create a care and support plan for him. The Council also said it would carry out financial assessment to decide whether he needed to pay some of his care charges and how much it would be. Through oversight the Council failed to send this document to Mrs X.
16. At the time of the care needs assessment Mr Y’s social worker (the Social Worker) told Mrs X that Mr Y may be charged for his care services.
17. The Council started providing care services to Mr Y at the beginning of May 2023.
18. At the end of March 2024 the Council began an assessment of Mr Y’s finances. It received his financial contribution form towards the end of May.
19. In mid-June 2024 the Council completed Mr Y’s financial assessment and assessed his maximum weekly contribution for non-residential care services as £83. The Council also calculated the outstanding charges for the period from the beginning of May 2023 when Mr Y started receiving care services. The outstanding charges amounted to over £4,500.
20. Mrs X raised concerns about the Council charging for the period when Mr Y did not know if he would be charged for his care services and if so how much it would be. She considered it was wrong to expect Mr Y to pay for the time when he did not know about the amount of care charges as he had no savings and had other debts.
21. In August 2024 the Council offered Mrs X an option of paying extra £83 a month towards repayment of Mr Y’s debt. After a few months of making these extra payments Mrs X stopped, waiting for the Council to resolve her complaint.

Analysis

22. As pointed out in paragraphs ten and 13 before charging Mr Y for his care services, the Council should have assessed his contributions and told him how much he would be expected to pay.
23. In its response to Mrs X’s complaint the Council said that it could not request a financial assessment for Mr Y before his care had started as providing him with a placement was urgent. Mr Y’s individual circumstances, including hospitalisations, it said, had contributed to the complexity of this case. Due to oversight the request for a fairer charging assessment was not completed and missed referral was picked up much later.
24. I accept that due to the circumstances of this case the Council might not have been able to carry out Mr Y’s financial assessment before starting his care services. However, once the care services started at the beginning of May 2023, the Council should have immediately referred him for a financial assessment. The Council’s normal timescale for completing financial assessments are 40 working days. If the Council had started the assessment without delay, it is likely it would have been completed within eight weeks. Mr Y’s outstanding care charges would have amounted to over £650 rather than over £4,500.
25. The delay of over ten months in starting the assessment of Mr Y’s finances is fault. This fault caused injustice to Mr Y and Mrs X:
• for Mr Y not knowing whether he would be charged for his care services and if so how much, meant that he could not plan or prepare for certain monthly expenditure. Incurring a significant debt was distressing especially since he had other debts and no savings.
• as a person managing Mr Y’s finances, Mrs X was distressed when she found out that Mr Y owed a large sum of money to the Council. She felt responsible for ensuring Mr Y had enough money for his day-to-day expenses. When assessing Mr Y’s care needs the Council, however, told Mrs X about possible charging. Therefore she should have expected Mr Y’s finances to be assessed and when it was not happening it would have been reasonable for her to contact the Council about this matter.
26. The Council offered Mrs X a repayment plan for Mr Y’s outstanding care charges of £83 a month. This offer needs to be reviewed to ensure Mr Y’s repayment plan is affordable for him.

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Action

27. To remedy the injustice caused by the faults identified, we recommend the Council complete within four weeks of the final decision the following:
• apologise to Mr Y and Mrs X for the injustice caused to them by the fault identified. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The Council should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended;
• arrange a meeting or telephone call with Mrs X to discuss a realistic repayment plan for Mr Y’s outstanding care charges. The Council will provide us with the notes from this meeting and a copy of an agreed repayment plan;
• pay Mr Y £200 to recognise his distress.

The Council will provide the evidence that this has happened.

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Decision

28. I find fault causing injustice. The Council has accepted my recommendations, so this investigation is at an end.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman