Summary: Ms X complains the Council delayed in progressing a request for repairs/adaptations to her property. Ms X says the Council delayed in completing an assessment by an Occupational Therapist and providing her with a copy of taking any action. Miss X also complains the Council has not included all items in its assessment of her Disability Related Expenses from January 2025 onwards. Ms X says this has delayed her getting a wheelchair as the property is not currently suited for one, leaving her confined indoors and has caused her frustration. We have found fault in the actions of the Council for delay in referring the case to an Occupational Therapist. The Council has agreed to write to Miss X to apologise, pay her a symbolic payment and complete a service improvement.

The complaint

1. Ms X complains the council delayed in progressing a request for repairs/adaptations to her property. Ms X says the Council delayed in completing an assessment by an Occupational Therapist and providing her with a copy of taking any action. Miss X also complains the Council has not included all items in its assessment of her Disability Related Expenses from January 2025 onwards.
2. Ms X says this has delayed her getting a wheelchair as the property is not currently suited for one, leaving her confined indoors and has caused her frustration.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this report, we have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. We refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
4. 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/care provider has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
5. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(1), as amended)

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What I have and have not investigated

6. Ms X does not want to continue the complaint raised about the delay in the Occupational Therapist completing an assessment. Ms X says this has now gone ahead and she is happy this element.
7. I have not considered matters before September 2024 as any complaints relating to that period are late and Ms X could have brought those sooner.

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How I considered this complaint

8. I considered evidence provided by Ms X and the Council as well as relevant law, policy and guidance.
9. Ms X and the Council were invited to comment on my draft decision. I have considered any comments before making a final decision.

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What I found

Disabled Facilities Grants

10. Disabled Facilities Grants are provided under the terms of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. Councils have a statutory duty to give grants to disabled people for certain adaptations. Before approving a grant, a council must be satisfied the work is necessary, meets the disabled person’s needs, and is reasonable and practicable.
11. In March 2022 the government issued non-statutory guidance “Disabled facilities Grant (DFG) Delivery: Guidance for local authorities in England.
12. This guidance advises councils in England on how they can effectively and efficiently deliver DFG funded adaptations to best serve the needs of local older and disabled people. It brings together and sets out in one place existing policy frameworks, legislative duties and powers, together with recommended best practice, to help councils provide an adaptation service to disabled tenants and residents in their area.

Disability Related Expenses

13. Councils can take disability-related benefit into account when calculating how much someone should pay towards the cost of their care. When doing so, a council should make an assessment to allow the person to keep enough benefit to pay for necessary disability-related expenditure (DRE) to meet any needs it is not meeting. The Care and Support Statutory Guidance sets out a list of examples of such expenditure. It says any reasonable additional costs directly related to a person's disability should be included. What counts as DRE should not be limited to what is necessary for care and support. For example, above average heating costs should be considered.

What happened

14. The Council completed a strengths-based review in mid-September 2024. The notes from the review say Ms X had reported a decline in her condition since the last assessment and was unhappy the Council had not completed adaptions to her property. The assessment recommended a referral should be made to Occupational Health regarding Ms X’s health and mobility needs.
15. Ms X contacted the Council in November and December 2024 to chase up what was happening with adaptions it had promised at her property and a new wheelchair.
16. The Council wrote to Ms X in January 2025 following a previous ombudsman investigation in relation to Ms X’s DRE’s. The Council confirmed it had recalculated Ms X's DRE's.
17. The Council made a referral to an Occupational Therapist (OT) for Ms X surrounding concerns about her home environment in January 2025.
18. Ms X emailed the Council in late January 2025 and said she felt the Council’s assessment of her DRE’s was wrong. In particular, Ms X felt the Council had not considered travel costs, personal care, additional washing costs, changes required to food shopping and use of specific crutches or braces. Ms X sent a further email to the Council in early February 2025 saying that it had also failed to consider costs of art frames and photography.
19. The Council emailed Ms X in early January 2025 and asked to arrange a face-to-face meeting to explain the breakdown of the financial assessment. The Council also explained how it had reached its calculations and provided Ms X with a leaflet about DRE’s.
20. Ms X sent a further email to the Council in mid-February 2025 saying she still did not agree with the Council’s assessment. The Council responded the following day to say it had considered the further information Ms X had provided. It explained it had amended the assessment based on additional travel expenses, but the energy usage was below the average, so this was not considered in the assessment.
21. The Council sent Ms X an email in mid-March 2025 which again explained how it had calculated her DRE’s. The Council said it had advised Ms X to send further evidence to allow it to review the matter further. The Council provided an email address to Ms X to provide documentation to.
22. Ms X contacted the Council in early April 2025 to say she could not have a wheelchair assessment until the Council had completed the adaptions at her property.
23. The Council completed an OT assessment in mid-May 2025. The Council told Ms X the adaptions such as door widening may not be possible due to her property being a housing association property.
24. The OT produced a support plan which recommended internal and external door widening and adaptions to the bathroom.
25. Miss X raised a complaint with the Council in June 2025 which said she was unhappy with the delay in getting help for the adaptions and repairs at her property. She also said the Council had delayed in completing the OT assessment and that items were not included in her financial assessment.
26. The OT discussed the recommended adaptions with Ms X in mid-June 2025 and again confirmed these may not be possible as the decision would rest with the housing association.
27. The Council received consent from the housing association regarding the adaptions asked for in late July 2025.
28. Ms X raised a further complaint with the Council in late August 2025 to say she had been waiting for it to consider the OT report, and alterations had not taken place.
29. The Council responded to the complaint the same day and said it had passed the request for adaptions to the adaption team and it was awaiting allocation of a surveyor.
30. The Council arranged a surveyor to attend Ms X’s property in early September 2025. The surveyor raised concerns about adapting the bathroom and that Ms X would not have enough space. The Council requested a further OT assessment.
31. The adaptions team completed a further reassessment in early October 2025 and recommended flooring changes, a wheelchair accessible kitchen and an alternative access proposal. The Council also recommended a window be changed to a door to allow access.
32. The Council arranged a joint site visit at Ms X’s property in late October 2025 with the housing association, a surveyor and the OT.
33. The Council submitted a request to the freeholder of Ms X’s property in early December 2025 to request permission to change the window to a door. The freeholder refused this in mid-February 2025.
34. The Council organised a further OT assessment in February 2025 following the refusal and a further surveyors visit took place in late April 2025.
35. I understand the Council are continuing to work with Ms X regarding the adaptions required at her property.

Analysis

Disabled Facilities Grants

36. The Council completed an assessment in September 2024 which said it would need to make a referral to an OT despite Ms X chasing what was happening. I cannot see the Council did this until January 2025. This is fault and would have caused Ms X distress and frustration.
37. The OT assessment then did not go ahead until May 2025. However, Ms X does not want this to be investigated so I have not considered the progress of the request for adaptions between January and May 2025.
38. Following the OT assessment in May 2025, the Council sought consent from the Housing Association and allocated the matter to a surveyor to establish if the adaptions were practicable. The council has organised further OT and surveyor visits following concerns about the feasibility of the works and has also requested permission from the freeholder, which was later denied. The Council has continued to work with surveyors, OT’s, the Housing Association and Ms X to establish what works may be feasible in her property.
39. I appreciate that works have not gone ahead but the Council has not yet been able to establish what works are practicable. I have not found fault in the Councils actions from May 2025 onwards.

Disability Related Expenses

40. Following a previous Ombudsman investigation, the Council completed a financial assessment for Ms X and told her of the outcome in January 2025. Ms X was unhappy with the outcome and queried this. The Council reconsidered the information Ms X had provided and again told her of the outcome.
41. The Council told Ms X if she could provide further evidence and it would consider this and if it affected the assessment. I have not found fault in the Council’s actions following the reassessment in January 2025.

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Action

42. Within four weeks of a Final decision, the Council should:

• Write to Ms X and apologise for the distress and frustration caused by the identified faults. We publish guidance on remedies which sets out our expectations for how organisations should apologise effectively to remedy injustice. The organisation should consider this guidance in making the apology I have recommended in my findings.
• Pay Ms X £250 to acknowledge the distress and frustration caused by the delay in making the OT referral.
• Advise the ombudsman what steps it will take to ensure referrals are made in a timely manner.

43. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Decision

44. I find fault causing injustice.

Investigator’s decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman