Worcestershire County Council (24 001 900)
Category : Adult care services > Direct payments
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 23 Jul 2024
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint that the Council wrongly invoiced him for over £3,000 in missed contributions towards care costs. The Council has reissued the invoice showing Mr X does not owe it any money. Any injustice is not significant enough justify our involvement. Furthermore, there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by investigating.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council caused him distress when it wrongly sent him an invoice stating he owed over £3000 in care fees.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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, or
- there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by the complainant.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- Mr X complained after the Council sent him an invoice for outstanding care fees. Mr X said he had already paid them and provided evidence to support what he was saying.
- The Council reissued the invoice which showed Mr X did not owe any money.
- Although Mr X was understandably distressed to receive the invoice, the level of injustice is not sufficient to warrant an investigation.
- But even if we considered there was enough injustice to investigate we would not. This is because the Council has put the matter right and further investigation by us could achieve nothing meaningful.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because any injustice is not significant enough justify our involvement and there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by investigating.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman