Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about an alleged late request for payment of care fees by the Council. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council causing injustice to Mrs X to warrant our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Mrs X said the Council’s communications with her were poor. She said she found an officer’s demeanour during a phone call in September 2023 upsetting. She said she was misled into believing she had paid the full cost of her mother, Mrs Y’s care in October 2023 when she left the home. She said she then found it distressing to be chased for an additional sum ten months later, when her mother had died in the interim. She wanted the Council to waive the care fees due for the final period of her mother’s care.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We may investigate a complaint on behalf of someone who has died or who cannot authorise someone to act for them. The complaint may be made by:

• their personal representative (if they have one), or
• someone we consider to be suitable.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 26A(2), as amended)
 

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
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained.

(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. There is no dispute that the care fees requested apply to the final part-month period when Mrs Y was resident in a care home. This was several months before her death.
7. The correspondence lays out how the Council billed Mrs Y’s care. This was via a regular invoice in arrears posted to Mrs X’s home address at the end of each month. The Council provided the invoice numbers and dates. The correspondence confirms Mrs X made a very large payment during a phone call in September 2023 after the sale of Mrs Y’s home, at which point an officer confirmed the accumulated debt had been cleared. I accept Mrs X was upset by the phone call, particularly as the money was the proceeds of the sale of her childhood home. But that would not give grounds for us to recommend a sum due later. Mrs X made a further large payment at the time Mrs Y moved from the care home in October 2023.
8. The correspondence states the invoices issued by that time ran only to the start of October 2023. It states the Council issued an invoice for the last part-month period at the end of October 2023 and sent it as usual to Mrs X’s home address. It would have been reasonable for Mrs X to query this if she believed she had already paid the whole sum due until Mrs Y left the care home. Although the Council has accepted it did not chase payment of the final invoice until June and July 2024, the sum had been due for several months by then.
9. The closure of the financial and administrative affairs of a parent after their death is a point beyond which any re-opening of those matters is understandably very unwelcome. However, the Council stated it was unaware of Mrs Y’s death during the intervening period. And the sum in any case remained due, having first been raised by the invoice before Mrs Y’s death.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint because there is not enough evidence off fault by the Council causing injustice to Mrs X to warrant our further involvement.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman