Summary: We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint about the support provided to her as a carer between 2020 and 2023 and during recent legal proceedings. Part of the complaint is late and we cannot investigate matters related to court proceedings.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the Council failed to provide appropriate support to her as a carer for her relative, Ms Y, between 2020 and 2023. It also failed to support her during recent court action. She says this affected her health, caused distress and financial loss. She wants the Council to backdate her direct payments between 2020 and 2023, provide a financial remedy for the distress caused by 14 months of court proceedings and to review its direct payments policy.

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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 cannot investigate a complaint about the start of court action or what happened in court. (Local Government Act 1974, Schedule 5/5A, paragraph 1/3, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

7. We cannot investigate Ms X’s complaint about support provided to her as a carer between 2020 and 2023. The Council approved her application for direct payments and for Ms X to be a paid carer in February 2023 but decided at that time it was not appropriate to backdate the payment. If Ms X was dissatisfied with this decision at that time, she could have approached us sooner. This part of the complaint is late and there is no good reason to investigate now.
8. Ms X also complains the Council did not support her during recent legal proceedings. We cannot investigate this as we have no power to investigate complaints about what happened during court action.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because part of the complaint is late and we cannot investigate complaints about what happened during court action.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman