Summary: Mrs X complained about the financial assessment carried out by the Council for her father Mr Z. She says the Council did not send her the assessment or invoices to her address. She is also unhappy with the complaint handling and debt collection carried out by the Council. She reports the complaint caused her father distress and anxiety. We found the Council at fault, which caused Mr Z injustice. The Council should make payment and apologise to both Mrs X and Mr Z.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains about the financial assessment carried out by the Council for her father Mr Z. She says the Council did not send her the assessment, or invoices to her address.
2. Mrs X is also unhappy with the debt collection carried out by the Council and the way it responded to her complaint.
3. Mrs X says that this has caused Mr Z a lot of anxiety due to worrying about the debt collection carried out by the Council. She also reports that she has spent a great deal of time contacting the Council about this matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. 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)
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. 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)
7. Although elements of this complaint occur in 2023 and 2024 and would normally be outside our jurisdiction due to time constraints, I have decided to exercise discretion. This is because Mrs X disputed the billing in February 2024. It was not until July 2025 that the Council confirmed the billing was wrong. She then approached the Ombudsman after the complaints process, and I consider it fair to consider the matter overall.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered evidence provided by Mrs X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance. Mrs X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.
9. I have also considered the relevant statutory guidance, as set out below. Also, I have considered the Ombudsman’s published guidance on remedies.

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What I found

What should have happened

10. 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)
11. Where a council has decided to charge for care, it must carry out a financial assessment to decide what a person can afford to pay. It must then give the person a written record of the completed assessment.
12. Councils should have clear procedures to deal with social care complaints. Regulations and guidance say they should investigate and resolve complaints quickly and efficiently. A single stage procedure should be enough. The council should include in its complaint response:

• how it considered the complaint;
• the conclusions reached about the complaint, including any required remedy; and
• whether it is satisfied all necessary action has been or will be taken by the organisations involved; and
• details of the complainant’s right to complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
  (Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009)

What happened

13. Mrs X says that in April 2023 she sent a financial assessment form to the Council for her father. She confirms that she has power of attorney over her father to make financial decisions on his behalf, and she told the Council about this.
14. Mrs X confirms that home care started in May 2023 and ended in August 2023 when Mr Z moved out of the Council’s area.
15. The Council say that it was not informed that Mr Z had left the area until November 2023. In January 2024, it completed the finalisation of care services and backdated this to August 2023.
16. In February 2024, Mrs X contacted the Council to say that she had received bills for Mr Z addressed to his former property and she wished to dispute the balance. Mrs X says she did the same in November 2024 after receiving another redirected bill.
17. Mrs X explains that she heard nothing from the Council until July 2025 when it sent (to her address) debt collection correspondence. She confirms she made an official complaint to the Council. She is unhappy with some of the response from the Council about her complaint and that it did not uphold all aspects.
18. The Council in its final response say that it has amended the bills for the correct period and confirms that it failed to send Mrs X a completed financial assessment at the time.

Financial Assessment

19. The Council has confirmed that it failed to send the completed financial assessment to Mrs X. As part of the Care Act, the Council had a responsibility to provide a written copy of the assessment. Also, under the care and statutory guidance available to Councils, it states under section 6.29 that:
20. ‘Local authorities should inform the individual of an indicative timescale over which their assessment will be conducted and keep the person informed throughout the assessment process.’
21. I consider it fault the Council failed to provide a written financial assessment to Mrs X and failed to keep her updated regarding the progress of the assessment.
22. This fault impacted Mrs X directly by not being aware straight away of the care costs Mr Z was required to pay for. This then directly impacted the issue with the billing of the account, which I will consider below. If the Council had kept Mrs X updated about her application, she could have disputed the failure to receive a financial assessment.
23. Overall, in consideration of the complaint, I find the Council should apologise to Mrs X for the distress that this issue caused her.

Charging, billing and debt collection

24. In the financial assessment form provided by the Council, it shows Mrs X is responsible for the financial decisions for Mr Z. It provides her address on this form and therefore I consider that all information relating to the financial decisions should have been sent to Mrs X directly.
25. Mrs X confirms the bills were in fact sent directly to Mr Z who lacks capacity to make decisions regarding his finances. I consider this to be fault by the Council and this with the failure to send the financial assessment added to the confusion surrounding the billing.
26. It is clear the billing of the care charges has been affected by the delay in the finalisation of the account after Mr Z moved out of the Council’s area. Once the Council became aware of the move in November 2023, it should have finalised the account correctly.
27. I note that after Mrs X raised a complaint in July 2025, the Council revised the account, and rebilled it to the correct dates, which reduced the balance accordingly. I have reviewed the account and completed calculations based on Mr Z’s assessed contribution and multiplied this over the time that he was in the Council’s area (15.5 weeks).
28. Based on this information, I find the Council’s revised charges to be correct. However, I consider it fault that it took over a year for the Council to finalise the account correctly. During this time, Mrs X also received directly to her address, debt collection letters about the balance on the account.
29. The Council’s policy on debt collection states the following under section 1:2:
30. ‘Take a co-ordinated and informed approach to debt collection and management. Provide specific considerations to vulnerable customers where appropriate’.
31. Mrs X had disputed the balance on the account (which was incorrect at the time). However, the Council failed to communicate internally to resolve this matter and prevent it from reaching debt collection, before it amended the billing on the account. I consider this to be fault by the Council.
32. This fault caused Mr Z an injustice because the receiving of debt collection letters while disputing the account would have caused him distress. Mrs X has explained that due to Mr X’s cognitive issues, he struggles to understand proportionality. Therefore, the debt collection charges caused him a lot of anxiety which I have considered in the award below.
33. Although I recognise there is an outstanding balance on the account, the award I make is in consideration of the distress this issue has caused Mr Z. It would not be appropriate therefore for the payment to go against the balance owed, because doing so would stop the remedy from working as intended.
34. I have therefore recommended the payment should be paid directly to Mr Z. I have also considered in my award the Council has previously awarded (and applied to the account) £100.

Complaint handling

35. Mrs X explains that she is unhappy the Council failed to uphold all aspects of her complaint when she complained to it.
36. The Council is entitled to its opinion about the complaint and has not prevented Mrs X seeking an alternative opinion about this through an Ombudsman review. I therefore do not find the Council at fault for its response.
37. Mrs X also explains the Council misrepresented in its complaint’s response, her conversation with it in February 2024. To confirm the Council wrote in its response that Mrs X had contacted it in February 2024 and was aware of the outstanding balance on the account.
38. As Mrs X reported that she had received redirected bills which had prompted the phone call, I do not consider the response by the Council to be misleading. However, I do find that it could have placed greater emphasis on the disputed balance and the time it took the Council to resolve this.
39. The failure to do so, caused Mrs X distress in her belief the Council was not doing all it could to resolve this matter. I find the Council should apologise to Mrs X for this along with the time she spent in dealing with this matter.

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Action

40. Within four weeks of my final decision, the Council has agreed to:
1. Provide an apology to Mr Z for the distress the debt collection and billing issues caused him.
2. Provide an apology to Mrs X for distress caused in the handling of the complaint and for the failure to send her a copy of the financial assessment completed.
3. Pay Mr Z a further £150 for the distress caused in the debt collection and failure to issue a revised corrected bill sooner.
41. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
42. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

43. I find fault causing injustice. The Council should apologise and make payment to Mr Z.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman