The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s handling of a discretionary property disregard application. There is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mrs X is living in a care home. A relative (Mr Y) continues to live in the property owned by Mrs X. Mr Y asked for a discretionary disregard of Mrs X’s property as a part of the financial assessment for care home fees and Mr Y is unhappy the Council did not agree to the disregard.
Mr Y complained the Council failed to consider relevant evidence or to justify its decision. Mr Y said the decision caused stress and impacted their mental well-being.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended) 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 continue an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr Y and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Care Act 2014 (section 14 and 17) provides a legal framework for charging for care and support. It enables a council to decide whether to charge a person when it is arranging to meet their care and support needs. The charging rules for residential care are set out in the Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014.
When the Council arranges a care home placement, it must follow the regulations when undertaking a financial assessment to decide how much a person must pay towards the cost of their residential care.
Mrs X moved to a care home during 2024. Mr Y continued to live at Mrs X’s home address and they applied for a Discretionary Property Disregard so the value of the property would not be included in Mrs X’s financial assessment.
The Council decided the relative did not meet the criteria for the Disregard because they did not provide significant care and support to Mrs X and are not at risk of homelessness. The Council said it will include the value of the property in the financial assessment.
We are not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, even if someone disagrees with it.
Mr Y complained and the Council replied setting out how it considered the information provided by Mr Y and explained why it followed the Regulations in its decision. The disregard is discretionary and is a decision the Council was able to make. There is not enough evidence of fault in the decision-making process, nor in the decision reached, to warrant us investigating.
Final decision
We will not investigate Ms Y’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault by the council to warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman