Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council carried out a financial assessment when deciding if care fees were payable. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council had wrongly carried out a financial assessment when deciding whether Mrs Y would need to pay for her care. He says the house is not an includable asset as a percentage of the house is owned by a trust.
2. He says this means Mrs Y is having to pay more for her care than she should do. He says it has also caused him stress and taken up his time trying to resolve the matter.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating,
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is another body better placed to consider this complaint, 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

5. I considered information provided by the complainant.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. The Council carried out a financial assessment for Mrs Y in 2024. It decided that she would have to pay for her care because of the assets she owned. Mr X disputes the assessment. He complained the Council should not consider Mrs Y’s house because of how it is owned. He says this means there is no value to Mrs Y’s share of the house.
8. The Care Act 2014 Care and Support Statutory Guidance says, “The current market value will be the price a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller… Where the value of a property is disputed, the aim should be to resolve this as quickly as possible. [Councils] should try to obtain an independent valuation of the person’s beneficial share of the property…”
9. The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. We cannot challenge a Council’s decision unless there is fault in its decision making. The Council got information on the type of ownership and value and instructed an independent valuation of the property before reaching its decision.
10. We will not investigate this complaint as there is not enough evidence of fault in the decision-making process to justify investigating. We cannot achieve the outcome Mr X wants.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman