Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about Mrs X’s late grandmothers care bill. This is because further investigation is unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Mrs X says the Council acted improperly by letting her grandmother Mrs Z sign an agreement to repay her care fees without getting independent legal advice. She says Mrs Z did not have the mental capacity to make this decision and was under Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). She argues the Council then failed to recover the care debt for several years, causing interest to escalate and reducing the beneficiaries’ inheritance. Mrs X asks the Council to review its procedures, acknowledge the improper signing of the agreement, and remove, reduce, or refund the interest added as a result.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
3. 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, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, 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

4. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. Mrs X says the Council charged unfair interest on her grandmother Mrs Z’s care fees and failed to act for several years. She says Mrs Z lacked capacity and was under DoLS when she signed the agreement, so she could not understand it and had no legal advice.
7. She says the Council should have replaced this agreement with a Deferred Payment Agreement (DPA) in 2015 because DPAs use a lower, fairer interest rate. She also says the Council gave misleading information, delayed recovering the debt after Mrs Z died in 2020, let interest build up, and ignored her attempts to contact them. She wants the Council to remove all the interest accrued on the debt.
8. The Council said Mrs X’s complaint to it in 2025 fell outside the 12 month time limit specified in the Adult Social Care Statutory Complaints procedure, but it still provided information and clarification for transparency.
9. The Council advised the agreement was properly signed by Mrs Z in 2010 with Mrs Z’s daughter as witness, it added that the signed agreement clearly advises parties to seek independent legal and financial advice.
10. It said it had no duty to switch to a DPA, and interest only started after the estate failed to pay within 56 days of death. It accepted its wording may have caused confusion but says the agreement Mrs Z signed is still a deferred payment scheme. It went on to say it had communicated extensively with Mrs Z’s representatives about the matter since her death.
11. Under a Deferred Payment Agreement, the Council pays the care fees and later recovers the money from the person’s estate after their death. The executor collects the assets, pay any debts and then distributes the remaining estate. Care Fees are priority debt, Mrs Z’s estate must repay the debt, and the Council is legally entitled to charge interest on the outstanding amount until it is fully repaid.
12. We expect complainants to raise concerns with us within 12 months of being aware of the matter. The Council’s response to Mrs X suggests administrators of Mrs Z’s have been aware of this debt since at least June 2020, which is when interest started accruing on the underpaid care charges. There appears no good reason why Mrs X could not have raised her concerns about this matter with the Council or us sooner.
13. Even if we decided to exercise discretion to consider this late complaint, I do not believe further investigation is likely to find evidence of fault by the Council.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate this late complaint as further investigation is unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman