Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s errors in billing for the late Ms Y’s care provision. An investigation would not lead to a different outcome than that offered by the Council.

The complaint

1. Ms Y lived in a care home funded by the Council until April 2024. Her daughter Mrs X asked the Council for a final balance at that time and paid the amount the Council requested. Mrs Y died later in 2024. Mrs X then received from the Council a further care fees invoice in May 2025 for almost £11,000, for a care period from before she believed she had settled the account.
2. Mrs X complains the Council invoiced her for a further care fee sum almost a year after officers told her she had paid all the monies owed it by Ms Y.
3. Mrs X says it was challenging to contact and deal with the Council while trying to resolve the situation and that her mental health declined due to the stress. She says stress and worry has made her depressed and anxious at a time soon after her mother had died. Mrs X says she has not been able to fully grieve her mother as the ongoing matter is a reminder of the last years and months of Ms Y’s life. She wants the Council to waive the unpaid fees.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information from Mrs X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

My assessment

6. It was fault that the Council gave Mrs X the wrong information about Ms Y’s care fee settlement figure in 2024. This has led to inconvenience, upset, distress, time and trouble to Mrs X.
7. The remedy Mrs X seeks is for the Council to waive the care fee debt it did not tell her about until 2025. We recognise Mrs X has acted in good faith and on the information the Council gave her about Ms Y’s care fees account. But there is no dispute about Ms Y receiving the care provision in 2024 or about the cost of that care. The appropriate remedy is not waiving the fees because the Council’s faults did not lead to the fees being owed for the care Ms Y received.
8. The Council’s complaint response acknowledges its officers gave Mrs X the wrong information at the time she believed she had settled the entire debt in 2024, and that this caused her injustice. The Council offered Mrs X £300 to recognise this. This acknowledgement sum is the kind of outcome we would likely seek were we to investigate, to recognise Mrs X’s avoidable additional upset, distress and inconvenience caused by the Council’s billing and communication errors. An investigation by us would not result in a different outcome than that already offered by the Council, so we will not investigate.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because investigation would not lead to a different outcome than that offered by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman