Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about adult social care charges and the Council’s decision to refuse her complaint as late. This is because her complaint about the care charges is late and we have seen no reason why she could not have come to us sooner. We will not investigate the Council’s complaint handling if we are not investigating the substantive issue.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council took unauthorised payments for her late husband’s care from her bank account between 2012 and 2023.
2. She also complained the Council rejected her complaint of 2022 as late.

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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 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Ms X and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Ms X complains the Council took unauthorised payments for her husband’s care from her bank account between 2012 and 2023. She said some of the payments were taken during a period when her husband was in a secure mental health facility.
8. Ms X said she complained to the Council in 2022, but the Council responded in 2025 to reject her complaint as late.
9. Ms X has provided invoices bank statements showing payments taken by the Council between 2012 and 2023. It is reasonable to expect that she knew about the payments being taken from her account at the time, and therefore she could have complained to us about it sooner.
10. Ms X said she complained to the Council in 2022 and only received a response in 2025. However, we do not usually investigate a Council’s complaint handling if we cannot investigate the substantive issue because this is not a good use of public resources.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late and we have seen no good reason why she could not have complained to us sooner. We will not investigate the Council’s handling of her complaint because we are also not investigating the substantive issue.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman