Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council (25 000 376)
Category : Adult care services > Disabled facilities grants
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 06 Jul 2025
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse a disabled facilities grant. We are unlikely to find fault which has caused Mrs X to lose out on the grant.
The complaint
- Mrs X says the Council should have given her family a disabled facilities grant (DFG) to adapt her home.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- 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. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
- I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Background events
- Mrs X’s child, Y has disabilities. Mrs X asked the Council in January 2023 to provide a grant to adapt her home. Mrs X says they need to convert their loft to provide a bedroom and bathroom for Y. The Council’s occupational therapist carried out a home visit and assessed the home in April 2023. A surveyor assessed the home in September 2023. The Council refused the application. It said there were three existing rooms which could be used as bedrooms. It said it does not “provide adaptations for the purpose separate independent living accommodation when the needs can be met within the existing footprint of the property”
Analysis
- The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether you disagree with the decision the organisation made.
- It is unlikely our investigation would find fault which has caused Mrs X to lose out on a DFG.
Final decision
- We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find fault in the Council’s decision to refuse a DFG which as caused Mrs X to lose out on that grant.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman