Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about care charges. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate.

The complaint

1. Miss Y complains about the Council’s:

• lack of transparency in the care charges for her mother and inaccuracies in the amounts charged,
• refusal to consider whether failings in care provided should have altered the charges; and
• handling of the complaint

2. Miss Y says the issue has taken up a lot of time and caused her stress, added pressure, frustration and anxiety.

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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 provider 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 Miss Y and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. Miss Y complains about the home care charges applied to her mother's account. She says the charges were wrong, were not transparent, and did not properly reflect failings in the care provided.
8. Miss Y became aware of the charges in December 2024 and disputed them with the Council. This is when she first became aware of the matter she is complaining to us about.
9. Miss Y complained to us in January 2026, around 13 months after she became aware of the charges. The time limit set out in paragraph four therefore applies, and her complaint is late.
10. We cannot normally investigate complaints made more than 12 months after a person becomes aware of the matter unless we decide there are good reasons to do so.
11. Miss Y says her complaint is not limited to the discovery and backdating of the care charges but forms part of a wider and longstanding pattern of concerns about her mother's care.
12. Miss Y says these issues date back to 2023 and wants us to consider them as a continuing matter relating to the Council's overall management of her mother's care, rather than as isolated events.
13. We will not investigate this complaint. Miss Y has been raising the concerns about her mother’s care with the Council since 2023, therefore knew about the matters she complains of well before she approached us. As she was aware of the issues and had been chasing them with the Council, it would have been reasonable for her to bring her complaint to the Ombudsman sooner.

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Final decision

14. We will not investigate Miss Y’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons to exercise our discretion to investigate.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman