Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council communicated with Mr X about his mother’s care fees. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault to warrant an investigation.

The complaint

1. Mr X complains the Council did not communicate with him about his mother’s care fees. He says the Council entered a deferred payment agreement with his mother which involved a property which they owned jointly.
2. Mr X would like the Council to waive all care fees due.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Mr X complains the Council did not contact him when it entered a deferred payment agreement with his mother.
7. The Council has explained that no such agreement was entered with his mother. It says it carried out its financial assessment for Mr X’s mother and informed his mother’s attorney that she was assessed to be a self-funder.
8. The attorney did not complete the deferred payment agreement form, and so no such agreement was entered.
9. The Council explains if it had received a completed form, and entered the agreement, as part of its process it would have contacted Mr X as the joint owner of the property. He was not informed because this did not happen.
10. Mr X’s mother passed away and the Council sent a bill for her outstanding care fees. Mr X complained as he had not known of the arrangement sooner.
11. As the fees were owed by Mr X’s mother, the Council are not at fault for seeking payment from her share in a property. If Mr X disputes the Council’s right to do so, he can raise this in a court.
12. Mr X has not been caused a financial injustice as the fees would always have been pursued from his mother’s share of the property.
13. There is insufficient evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to justify an investigation in the circumstances. There is also no evidence that we could achieve what Mr X is seeking.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman