Summary: This complaint about care home fees from 7 years ago is too long ago for there to be any worthwhile outcome from an investigation. The complainants are both deceased, so even if there was fault, the injustice cannot be remedied.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Ms X, complains about the care costs for her deceased parents (Mr and Mrs Y). She complains they should not have had to pay a top up fee to the care home for 5 years. Ms X says that they did not have to pay the top up fee from 2021 onwards and if the fee had been waived before this, her parents would have had more money for their care.

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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)
3. 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 further investigation would not lead to a different outcome, or we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I read the papers put in by Ms X.
5. Ms X and the organisation had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

6. Mrs Y was in a residential care home from 2016 and Mr Y paid a top up fee to the Council.
7. In 2021, the Council waived the top up fee due to a change in circumstances. Both Mr and Mrs Y are now deceased.
8. Ms X complains that it was a stressful time when her mother went into the care home and her father just accepted he had to pay the fee. But she is now unsure if Mr Y should have had to pay the top up fee, as the care home offered without a top up fee was further for Mr Y to travel to when he visited his wife.
9. Ms X says she only became aware there might have been something wrong recently. But, the decision to pay the top up was in 2016 by her father and it is likely he will have signed a top-up agreement. There are unlikely to be any file notes, emails or notes of telephone conversations from 7 years ago that we could use to decide if there was fault. Especially as the Council offered the family a care home without a top up fee. The Council waived the top up fees were in March 2021 so there is no recent financial injustice.
10. Ms X has explained that she wants an apology and the top up fees from 2016 until 2021 paid to her family. Mr and Mrs Y are deceased so we would not expect the Council to refund the money to their relatives. I understand Ms X feels her parents would have had more income at the time if they had not paid the top up fee but even if we found there was fault by the Council, the injustice to Mr and Mrs Y cannot be remedied now.
11. For these reasons, I do not exercise discretion to investigate events that occurred before 2021, as I do not think there will be any worthwhile outcome from the investigation. The injustice to Mr and Mrs Y cannot be remedied now and it is unlikely there would be enough evidence to decide whether there was fault by the Council.

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Final decision

12. I have ended my investigation and do not uphold Ms X’s complaint. I cannot achieve a worthwhile outcome from investigation as I am unlikely to be able to achieve the remedy Ms X wants.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman