Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council managed care home fees for the complainants mother. This is because some of the issues raised happened too long ago and there is no evidence of fault in how the Council dealt with more recent matters.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I will call Mrs X, complains about how the Council managed the finances of her mother who was in care. Mrs X says the Council did not tell her that her mother was moving to residential care in 2015 and did not properly carry out an assessment of her finances. Mrs X also says the Council did not pay her mother a weekly personal needs allowance, and instead used it for her care fees.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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 there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

3. 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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

6. I will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint that the Council did not inform her that her mother was moving to residential care in 2015 and that it failed to properly carry out a financial assessment. This is because these events happened too long ago, and I see no reason why Mrs X could not have complained sooner.
7. I will not investigate Mrs X’s claim that the Council did not pay her mother a weekly personal needs allowance, instead using it for care fees. This is because there is no evidence of fault with how the Council dealt with this matter. The Council provided Mrs X with a breakdown which showed that the allowance was paid. It was only used to pay for an outstanding balance for care fees when Mrs X’s mother had passed away.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because some matters happened too long ago and there is no evidence of fault in how the Council dealt with more recent matters.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman