Surrey County Council (25 015 546)
Category : Adult care services > Charging
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 22 Jun 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint the Council failed to complete financial assessments for his late father, Mr Y. Any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council failed to complete financial assessments for his late father, Mr Y, whilst he was in residential care. He says this resulted in him receiving a significant bill for Mr Y’s care contributions following his death. Mr X said receiving the care bills had caused him stress. He wants the Council to either wipe out Mr Y’s care bills or significantly reduce the amount of money owed.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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:
- any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
- we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr Y initially paid his care contributions through direct debit. He stopped paying these in 2018. Following his death in late 2024, the Council contacted Mr X in relation to the outstanding money owed.
- Although there is a delay in the Council recovering Mr Y’s care contributions, we will not investigate this complaint. That is because Mr Y continued to receive care despite not paying his client contributions, therefore any delay in the Council billing him has not caused a significant injustice. The Council is entitled to recover the client contributions as Mr Y received the care he has been billed for.
- Additionally, Mr X wants the Council to waive the care charges. This is not a recommendation we would make for the Council failing to follow up the outstanding client contributions sooner.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman