Summary: There was fault by the Council. It took too long to complete financial assessments so that Miss X was not clear how much her mother would need to pay towards her care charges before the care started. It did not give information or advice to Miss X about the process or the charges, and did not fully respond to her complaint about this. This caused Miss X distress, frustration and uncertainty. The Council will apologise to Miss X, make a symbolic payment to recognise the impact on her, and remind staff that the care and support plan should include information about the financial assessment and a person’s contribution to their care charges.

The complaint

1. Miss X complains about how the Council handled the financial assessment and charges for her late mother’s home care and residential care. Miss X says the Council failed to:
• provide information or communicate effectively about the fees and costs of care;
• produce a placement contract; and
• respond fully to her complaint to it.
2. Miss X says that the Council’s failings have caused distress and confusion to her and her family.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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)
4. 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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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered evidence provided by Miss X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
6. Miss X and the Council had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

The law and guidance

7. A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document, which allows a person (‘the donor’) to choose one or more persons to make decisions for them, when they become unable to do so themselves. The 'attorney' or ‘donee’ is the person chosen to make a decision on the donor’s behalf. Any decision has to be in the donor’s best interests.
8. The Care Act 2014 (section 14 and 17) provides a legal framework for charging for care and support. It enables a council to decide whether to charge a person when it is arranging to meet their care and support needs, or a carer’s support needs. The charging rules are set out in the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 and councils should have regard to the Care and Support Statutory Guidance.
9. When the Council arranges a care home placement, it must follow the regulations when undertaking a financial assessment to decide how much a person must pay towards the cost of their residential care.
10. When the Council assesses how much a person should pay towards residential care charges, it must disregard the person’s home for the first 12 weeks. This allows a person and their family time to decide whether they need to sell their home.
11. The Council can offer a person a deferred payment arrangement. Here, the person does not have to sell their home straight away. The Council effectively loans the care charges and will recoup the money when the house is sold.
12. Everyone whose needs the council meets must receive a personal budget as part of the care and support plan. The personal budget gives the person clear information about the money allocated to meet the needs identified in the assessment and recorded in the plan. The council should share an indicative amount with the person, and anybody else involved, at the start of care and support planning. It should confirm the final amount of the personal budget through this process.

What happened

13. Miss X’s mother, Mrs K, was living at home and she needed home care. The Council assessed her care needs and the care started in March 2024. Miss X filled in a financial assessment form. Miss X tells me that her mother’s social worker had advised that as she had very little in savings, the Council would not expect her to contribute to her home care costs.
14. Mrs K applied for an LPA so that Mrs K and her brother could make financial decisions on her behalf. The LPA was granted in mid-July.
15. Mrs K was admitted to hospital and at the beginning of August, she was discharged to a nursing home.
16. In October, the Council asked Miss X’s brother for more information so that it could complete the financial assessment.
17. In November, the Council asked Miss X for the financial information as her brother had not submitted what it needed. It also completed a new assessment of Mrs K’s needs.
18. In December the Council issued a new care and support plan for Mrs K. This included Mrs K’s budget which set out the cost of the care, but did not say how much Mrs K should contribute to this. Miss X sent all the required financial information by the beginning of January 2025.
19. Towards the end of January 2025, the Council wrote to Miss X. It told her that Mrs K owed £77 per week for her home care from the beginning of April to when she went into hospital. At this time, the Council also told Miss X that when Mrs K went into the care home, the value of her property would be taken into account after 12 weeks into her stay there. This meant that from 28 October 2024 onwards, Mrs K was liable to pay the whole amount of her care fees.
20. After some correspondence between the Council and Miss X, she complained to the Council. She said that her mother’s social worker had said that she was unlikely to have to pay towards her home care. Miss X said that she had understood that her mother was entitled to Continuing Health Care (which would mean that her care is funded by the NHS) and that the Council had not discussed the fees with her. She said she had not been told how the charges would be calculated, and that as it had taken so long, her mother now had a very large bill which was a shock. Miss X said that nobody had explained to her how her mother’s house would be taken into account, and that this would be disregarded for the first 12 weeks she was in the care home.
21. The Council responded to Miss X’s complaint. It again explained that Mrs K’s property had been disregarded for 12 weeks but now she was liable for her care costs. Mrs K could defer these payments by entering into an agreement with the Council and it had sent Miss X information about this. The Council said that another team would respond to Miss X’s complaint that the Council had not told her of the care costs in good time. Miss X did not receive a response to this part of her complaint.
22. Sadly in March 2026, Mrs K died.
23. In response to my investigation, the Council has said:
• Miss X knew that there would be a financial assessment from March 2024, and so knew that it was possible her mother might be liable for these charges.
• Miss X also knew the weekly cost of the nursing home because this was written in her mother’s care and support plan.
• Its standard practice is to set out the home care fees at the time this is arranged but it does not have any records to show that it did this.
• It acknowledges that it did not respond to her complaint that the Council had not advised the family that Mrs K might have to contribute to her care charges.
• It also acknowledged that the financial assessment did not progress in good time, but it had to wait for Miss X to get the LPA as Mrs K lacked capacity.
• It contracted with the care home, and so there was no contract between the home and the family.
• It acknowledges the distress and confusion described by Miss X and the importance of clear, timely communication regarding care charges and financial responsibilities.
• It will reflect on the case to ensure that it maintains clear records of how and when financial information is shared; it replies fully to complaints; and communications between services is effectively coordinated and recorded.

Was there fault by the Council causing injustice to Mrs K and Miss X?

24. The Council took from March 2024 to January 2025 to notify Miss X of the home care charges, and from August 2024 to January 2025 to notify her of the residential care charges to be paid by Mrs K.
25. The Council says that it was waiting for details of the LPA. However, this was issued in July, and the Council made no further requests for information until October. Further, there is no record that it had contacted Miss X or her brother for details of the LPA, nor that it had sought any information from them while they were waiting for the LPA to come through. The law does not set out a time limit for completing a financial assessment, but the poor communication and delay was fault by the Council.
26. Miss X says the social worker told her that Mrs K would not need to pay for home care, based on the information she had shared at the time. I have no reason to disbelieve Miss X, and the Council cannot show what information it gave to the family about the home care charges.
27. Also, the Council cannot show what information it gave to Miss X about the residential care charges. It says that Miss X was aware that there would be a financial assessment, but this alone gives no indication of how the finances would be assessed or what might Mrs K might be liable for. There is no evidence that the Council had explained how the 12-week disregard worked, nor how they might decide to defer payments by agreement with the Council. These are important considerations when a family member moves to residential care. This was further complicated because it was thought that Mrs K may qualify for Continuing Health Care or Funded Nursing Care, where the nursing part of her care would be met by the NHS. In these circumstances, it was essential that the Council completed a financial assessment without delay and gave clear advice and information to Miss X about care charges.
28. The Council has said that Mrs K’s care and support plans included a personal budget setting out the cost of the care. The Care Act (section 25) says that the Council must include a personal budget in a care and support plan. The Care Act (section 26) sets out that a personal budget is the cost to the council of meeting the person’s needs; the amount based on the financial assessment the person must pay towards that cost; and the amount the Council must pay to the costs.
29. We therefore expect councils, to carry out a financial assessment before they create a care and support plans and before care services begin. This is so people can make an informed choice about what care and support they want.
30. The Council issued a care and support plan in December 2024, following its assessment of Mrs K’s needs in October. This was some time after Mrs K had moved into the care home. The plan set out the total weekly cost of the care but did not say what Mrs K needed to contribute as required by the law. The Council’s failure to do this is fault.
31. The care charges are owed for the care received, and so that amount must stand. But the Council’s delay in completing the financial assessment and its failure to advise Miss X of her mother’s contribution to the care fees for some months after her liability started, caused Miss X distress, frustration, and uncertainty.
32. The Council has acknowledged that it did not respond to Miss X’s complaint fully and has said it will ensure it does so in future.
33. Miss X was concerned that there was no placement contract. However, the contract is between the Council and the care home, and so there would have been no contract between Mrs K and the care home in the initial stages.

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Action

34. The Council has said that it will reflect on the Miss X’s complaint and make improvements to its service. It will also within one month of date of my final decision:
• Apologise to Miss X for the distress, uncertainty and frustration its failings caused her.
• Make a symbolic payment to Miss X of £250 in recognition of the impact on her.
• Remind its staff that the Care Act requires the care and support plan to include a personal budget based on the financial assessment, and that this should set out the amount the person needs to pay towards those charges before the care starts. This should be by way of a staff briefing to all relevant staff.
35. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman