Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about a personal budget for a direct payment. The complaint is late and there is no good reason to investigate it now.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained the Council did not include money in his direct payment personal budget to cover the costs associated with him being an employer. He said because of that he had to pay for insurance and payroll services out of his own pocket. He said that resulted in him going into his overdraft. He wants the Council to compensate him for that.

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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 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)
4. 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 injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. Mr X complained to the Council at the start of 2023. He said it had not met his employee insurance and payroll costs for his direct payment since 2019. The Council reimbursed him these costs. It also updated his personal budget to include a weekly contribution for his payroll and insurance. It did not compensate him for going into his overdraft.
8. Although Mr X is unhappy with how the Council dealt with this complaint, we will not investigate. That is because the complaint is late. We expect a person to complain to us within twelve months of the Council having done something wrong. Mr X said the Council stopped the financial support in 2019. Mr X did not complain to us until June 2024. It would have been reasonable for Mr X to complain to us sooner if he was unhappy with what the Council had done.
9. In any event if the complaint was not late, we would not investigate. The Council has reimbursed Mr X his payroll and insurance costs. Therefore, there is no significant outstanding injustice to justify our involvement.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because it is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman