Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about use of a pre-paid card for adult social care costs. Whether there was any fault by the Council in earlier explanations of the use of the card, does not change the outcome. Mr D has spent money from the card for items other than his wife’s care support and is responsible to repay those public funds.

The complaint

1. Mr D says the Council never explained using the pre-paid card for adult social care costs, so he is not responsible for misusing it. Mr D wants the Council to fully explain what happened regarding the setting up of payment for his late wife’s (Mrs E’s) adult social care.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or
• further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.

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

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. In Mrs E’s lifetime she had adult social care arranged by the Council. The Council gave Mrs E direct payments to arrange and fund her own care and had issued Mrs E with a pre-payment card.
6. Regardless of what Mr D knew about the payment card, he has spent public monies from it which he must repay. There is no fault in the Council asking Mr D to pay this back, even if there was any earlier fault in explaining the use of the card. If Mr D was not sure whether he could use it after Mrs E’s death, he should have asked. The Council has offered a repayment plan if he cannot pay the debt in one instalment, which is a reasonable action.
7. It is not a good use of our resource to try and get answers and explanations for Mr D. That will not change the outcome that he must repay the money he spent from the payment card, which was only for the purpose of paying for Mrs E’s care.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr D’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council causing Mr D injustice. An Ombudsman investigation is unlikely to reach a different outcome than the Council’s decision that Mr D must repay money he has spent from a payment card intended to pay for adult social care.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman