Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council not having paid Miss X direct payments to hire a personal assistant. We will not reconsider matters we already decided in 2024. Given this, investigation of later events would not achieve a meaningful outcome, and we could not say any later fault by the Council caused injustice.

The complaint

1. Miss X complained the Council did not agree to pay her direct payments, leading to her personal assistant having provided care without payment since 2023, at an estimated cost of £50,000. Miss X’s complaints included the Council:
• delayed;
• made repeated excuses not to pay direct payments; and
• made repeated unlawful and disproportionate demands of Miss X.
2. Miss X said the matter caused her significant inconvenience and distress. She wanted the Council to pay her direct payments, backdated to 2023.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. 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 has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. Miss X’s complaint is about an ongoing dispute between her and the Council, from 2023 to present, relating to her eligibility for direct payments. Miss X has not yet begun receiving direct payments, despite her view she was eligible in 2023. She has received care from a personal assistant she says is self-employed, although they have not received any payment due to the ongoing dispute.
7. We considered Miss X’s complaint previously. We issued a decision statement in March 2024. We concluded the Council needed to carry out checks relating to Miss X’s personal assistant’s employment status, which Miss X was declining.
8. Miss X’s current complaint raises arguments against our previous findings, which I will not address here. It was open to Miss X to pursue a judicial review of our previous decision. A new complaint cannot be used to circumnavigate that process or to reconsider matters we previously considered and decided.
9. I have considered whether we can and should investigate further events that have occurred since our previous decision. However, doing so would not result in a different or worthwhile outcome.
10. But for any fault in more recent events, Miss X would still not have received direct payments. Miss X’s complaint to us makes clear she has continued to decline to provide the information the Council required to complete its checks into the carer’s employment status. For this reason, any fault in more recent events has not caused Miss X injustice.
11. It is therefore disproportionate for us to consider more recent events further. It remains open to Miss X to provide the information the Council has requested, or to accept a commissioned service from the Council.

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Final decision

12. We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint because doing so would not achieve a meaningful outcome due to any fault by the Council not having caused Miss X an injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman