Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s actions relating to X’s request for direct payments for care and support and its poor communication. The Council has upheld the complaint and provided an adequate remedy for X’s injustice. There are no wider public interest issues to justify our investigation.

The complaint

1. X receives direct payments from the Council to use to meet their care and support needs. X complains the Council suspended their direct payments in 2025. He says the Council made assurance the payments would be reinstated but nothing happened for months. He also complains the Council breached the Equality Act 2010 by failing to make reasonable adjustments by the way it communicated with him. He wants financial compensation for the injustice.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we are satisfied with the actions an organisation has taken or proposes to take. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(7), as amended)
3. We cannot decide if an organisation has breached the Equality Act as this can only be done by the courts. But we can make decisions about whether or not an organisation has properly taken account of an individual’s rights in its treatment of them.

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. The Council stopped X’s direct payments in February 2025. It gave X a reason for this. Following this decision, X attempted to contact their last known case worker several times between February and May 2025.
7. In May 2025, X asked the Council for a new assessment of their care and support needs, so their direct payments could be restarted. The following month, the Council carried out an initial assessment of X’s needs but said it would need to do a further assessment before it could decide to reinstate X’s direct payments.
8. The Council has now apologised for delays in handling X’s request and for poor communication between X’s request and its assessment.
9. Following its investigation of X’s subsequent complaint, the Council asserted it would reinstate X’s direct payments. The Council also offered X £550 as a symbolic financial remedy for their distress. This remedy is in line with what we would recommend for the injustice X suffered because of the Council’s actions. Therefore, we will not investigate this complaint.

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Final decision

10. We will not investigate this complaint. The Council has offered a suitable remedy for X’s injustice, and there are no wider public interest issues to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman