Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the actions of the Council in securing the payment of care fees. That is because the complaint is late.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about the actions of the Council in the payment of his mother’s, Ms Y’s, residential care fees. He said the Council was abusive and threatening towards him. He said the Council knew he was mentally unwell and did not take that into consideration when dealing with him. Mr X also said the Council forced Ms Y to handover money and block his access to her bank accounts.
2. Mr X said the Council’s actions had caused both him and Ms Y distress. He wants the Council to apologise and provided financial compensation for its actions.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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 has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)
5. 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

6. I considered information provided by the complainant.
7. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

8. Ms Y was a self-funder. She arranged and paid for her residential care. In the Council’s complaint response to Mr X, it confirmed the Care Provider contacted it in 2019 after Ms Y’s care fees were not paid. It said it took over the payment of the fees as her placement was at risk. As Mr X had lasting power of attorney (LPoA) for Ms Y’s finances, the Council contacted him about Ms Y’s finances. It also met with Ms Y and assessed her as having mental capacity to deal with her finances. It supported her to the bank to set up a direct debit to pay her care fees. It apologised if Mr X felt intimidated during this process but said there was no evidence the Council has discriminated against Mr X because of his mental health.
9. Although Mr X is unhappy with the Council’s response, we will not investigate this complaint. Firstly, the events that Mr X complains of occurred more than twelve months ago. Therefore, this is a late complaint and we should not investigate. It was reasonable for Mr X to of complained sooner if he was unhappy with the Council’s actions.
10. In any event, even if this complaint was not late, we would not investigate. Ms X was a self-funder, whose care placement was at risk because of unpaid care fees. There is not enough evidence of fault in the action the Council took to address this to justify our involvement.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because is late.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman