Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s failure to provide advice to Mrs X about the use of her daughter’s direct payments or its failure to complete direct payment audits. That is because the complaint is late.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complained that the Council failed to provide advice about how she could spend her daughter’s direct payment. She also said it failed to audit the use of the direct payment between 2013 and 2015. She said that meant she had not realised she had spent the direct payment incorrectly. She wants the Council to write of the debt that the Council has invoiced her for.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

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

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My assessment

5. The Council made direct payments to Mrs X from 2013. The Council started a direct payment audit review in February 2015. That review continued into 2016. The Council said Mrs X had not used the direct payments in line with her daughter’s support plan. It also said Mrs X had not made her daughter’s client contribution to the direct payment account.
6. The Council wrote to Mrs X in October 2016 about recovering Mrs X’s client contributions and detailing the unauthorised spending. The Council had two further meetings with Mrs X in 2017 about the direct payment audit. The Council invoiced Mrs X at the start of 2018 for Mrs X’s contributions and recovery of the misused direct payments.
7. Mrs X complained in February 2018. The Council responded two months later. It did not uphold her complaint. It said she could escalate her complaint at the Council or contact the Ombudsman if she were unhappy with its response.
8. Mrs X complained to the Ombudsman in February 2022. She explained that because of health she had been unable to complain to us sooner. I have considered the information Mrs X had provided around this, her contact with the Council when she became aware of the disagreement about the use of direct payments, and the Council’s complaint response to her in 2018. My view is it would have been reasonable for this complaint to have been brought to the Ombudsman sooner therefore I have decided not to exercise my discretion to investigate.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman