Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council ending special guardianship allowance payments. There is not enough evidence of fault to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. Mrs X said the Council ended special guardianship payments for her grandson despite him still being in full-time education.

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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))

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How I considered this complaint

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

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My assessment

5. Special guardianship allowance payments are discretionary once a young person turns 18. Councils may choose to continue them if the young person remains in education to complete a course, but they do not have to.
6. We would also expect any council to consider a young person’s individual circumstances when deciding what to do, rather than fettering its discretion by operating a blanket policy. In this case, the reason the Council gave for stopping the payments was because it was already meeting the cost of Mrs X’s grandson’s education at a residential school. This shows it considered the matter on an individual basis and did not fetter its discretion.

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Final decision

7. We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault in the Council’s actions to warrant investigation.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman