Summary: Ms B complains about the Council’s failure to make fostering payments to her prior to 2016 for looking after her younger sisters. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because it is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I refer to as Ms B, seeks backdated payments from the Council for the period between 2010 and 2016 when she was the carer for her two younger sisters but did not receive any fostering payments for her role.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. 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

3. In considering the complaint I spoke to Ms B and reviewed the information she provided, including the Council’s response to her complaint.

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What I found

4. Ms B became the carer for her two younger sisters in 2010. From this time up until 2016 she only received the children’s allowances for them as the Council did not make fostering payments for arrangements such as theirs at this time.
5. The situation changed in 2016 when the Council changed its policy to introduce a fee element for Family and Friends Carers paid at level 1 fostering allowances which Ms B then received.
6. In 2019 Ms B contacted the Council to seek a backdated payment to cover the period before 2016 when she had received no payments for looking after her sisters.
7. The Council responded to Ms B’s MP, who had written to the Council on her behalf, to explain its position and why it was unable to make a backdated payment to Ms B, or to others who had been in the same situation as her.

Assessment

8. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
9. The restriction highlighted at paragraph 2 applies to Ms B’s complaint. The complaint falls outside our jurisdiction because it is a late complaint and there are no grounds which warrant investigating the complaint now.

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Final decision

10. The Ombudsman will not investigate this complaint because it is a late complaint and so falls outside our jurisdiction

Investigator’s final decision on behalf of the Ombudsman

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman