London Borough of Redbridge (25 026 819)
Category : Adult care services > Charging
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 29 Sep 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s this complaint that the Council did not inform her of care charges. Ms X’s complaint is late, and it was reasonable for her to have complained sooner
The complaint
- Ms X complains about how the Council communicated information about care charges. Ms X says it has caused extreme stress, anxiety and a deterioration in her health. Ms X wants the Council to apologise, review its procedures and consider cancelling the debt she has accrued.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- 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)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Ms X had a direct payment from the Council to pay for care. Ms X’s assessed contribution for her care was zero. In July 2024 the Council re-assessed Ms X and told her of the change in contribution towards the cost of her care.
- Ms X says the Council had not told her about the change in her contribution, and she accrued a debt for this.
- We will not investigate this complaint. The Ombudsman normally expects people to complain to us within 12 months of them becoming aware of a problem. I see no good reason why Ms X could not have brought the complaint to us sooner.
- Even if we exercised our discretion to investigate, there is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council communicated with Ms X regarding the change in contribution.
- We will not usually investigate complaint handling if we are not investigating the rest of the complaint. This is because there is not usually enough injustice to justify us doing so. We collect information about particularly poor complaint handling practice and report this back to organisations. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), section 34B(8))
Final decision
- We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because it is late and it was reasonable for her to complain sooner.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman