Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council (23 000 234)
Category : Adult care services > Disabled facilities grants
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 26 Jun 2023
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about alleged fraud by the Council because any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement and because we cannot achieve the outcome sought.
The complaint
- Mr X complains the Council claimed money from a Government fund fraudulently in respect of Disabled Facilities Grants claimed in 2020 and 2021. He wants to see an auditor and fraud report, for the Council to sack those involved and for it to pay compensation.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Ombudsman investigates 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 may decide not to continue with 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
- we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.
- (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- I acknowledge Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s funding arrangements, but any alleged fault did not impact its provision of disabled facilities in his property.
- I will therefore not investigate because the alleged fault has not caused Mr X significant injustice.
- Mr X is unhappy the Council has not provided records requested, including auditor and fraud reports. However, the Council has confirmed the records Mr X wants do not exist. We cannot ask the Council to provide records that it says are not available.
- Further, it is not within our remit to ask the Council to discipline or sack staff.
- I will therefore not investigate because we cannot achieve the outcomes Mr X wants.
- For completeness, I cannot revisit matters dealt with under a previous Ombudsman investigation, case reference 20 013 959.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because the alleged fault did not cause him significant injustice and we cannot achieve the outcome he seeks.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman