Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s provision of information about care charges. There is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. Ms X complained the Council did not provide the correct information about paying for her mother’s care. Ms X says she had to sell her mother’s house at a reduced price and ask her brother to leave the family home. Ms X says this caused stress and financial loss to the family.

Back to top

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.

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

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

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

Back to top

My assessment

5. Ms X’s mother, Mrs Z, was admitted to hospital in 2023. Mrs Z did not have capacity. Prior to Mrs Z’s discharge, a Council social worker met with Ms X to discuss Mrs Z’s care options and finances, including a permanent care home placement. Ms X informed the Council that Mrs Z would be a self-funder.
6. During these discussions, the Council gave Ms X information about the costs of care for her mother.
7. Ms X advised she understood the information and signed a charging letter to show this.
8. The Council’s records also show the social worker discussed a Deferred Payment Agreement with Ms X but she rejected this possibility. The notes record the social worker said the Council might not take the value of the property into account because Mrs Z’s son had lived in the house for 45 years. The social worker gave Mx X a financial assessment form to complete. Ms X did not complete the form.
9. Ms X later sold the property to pay for Mrs Z’s care. She complained to the Council that she had been forced to do so because the Council had misinformed her about how to pay for Mrs Z’s care.
10. We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault to justify an investigation. The Council’s records show it provided Ms X with financial information which was in line with the Care Act 2014 and Care and Support Statutory Guidance (updated 2024). Ms X says the information was inaccurate but because we were not there at the meetings, we cannot come to a finding on that, even on the balance of probabilities.
11. In relation to the sale of Mrs Z’s house, it was open to Ms X to have submitted the financial assessment form and received further information from the Council on whether Mrs Z’s house needed to be sold prior to completion.

Back to top

Final decision

12. We will not investigate Ms X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman