Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s administration of care home fees as any fault in this regard did not cause the complainant a level of injustice that would warrant our further involvement.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains the Council did not inform her that payments for her late husband’s care should be made to it rather than the care home and that the Council sent her a large invoice out of the blue, after her husband had died. Mrs X is unhappy as she had to seek repayment of the fees from the home to then pay the Council’s invoice and because the Council’s complaint response did not contain up to date information. Mrs X says she was caused stress and worry during a difficult time following her husband’s death.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 fault did not cause a significant injustice to the complainant or we can achieve no meaningful outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

3. I considered information provided by the complainant.
4. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. I recognise Mrs X was caused upset during an already difficult time when she received an invoice from the Council for care fees she had already paid and as she says the Council had failed at the outset to tell her to make payments direct to it rather than the care home. I also appreciate that Mrs X was put to some time and trouble in having to recoup the money from the care home to then make payment to the Council. However, we will not investigate as I do not consider this represents a level of injustice that would warrant our further involvement. We have limited resources and must direct them to the most serious cases. In saying this, I have also had regard to the fact that the matter is now essentially resolved and while this appears due in the main to Mrs X’s own actions, it seems unlikely that we could achieve any further meaningful outcome by investigating.
6. I recognise that Mrs X was caused some further upset as the Council’s complaint response did not include up to date information, but the Council did subsequently apologise for this, and it is unlikely we could add to this.
7. For these reasons, we will not investigate.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because from our perspective, taking into account our limited resources, the injustice caused to her does not justify our further involvement and it is unlikely we could achieve any further meaningful outcome.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman