Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about how the Council completed a financial assessment. There is not enough evidence of fault to justify our involvement.

The complaint

1. Mr X complained about how the Council completed a financial assessment in 2018. He said it did not tell him he needed to declare his savings and did not provide information about the financial assessment in an accessible format. He said it then failed complete annual financial reviews.
2. Mr X said the Council’s fault had resulted in it wrongly assessing his client contributions and overpaying his direct payment. He said the Council had subsequently asked him to repay £28,000 which he owed because of its error.
3. Mr X said the Council’s actions had caused distress and caused financial hardship. He wants the Council to reimburse the money he has paid it.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

4. We investigate 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 continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants, or
• there is no worthwhile outcome achievable by our investigation.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by the complainant and the Council.
6. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

7. In the Council’s complaint response, it said it had written to Mr X in 2018 telling him about the need to share information about his savings. It said Mr X had also signed to say he had received information about the financial assessment. It said there was nothing in its case records to say Mr X had asked for that information in a different format. We will not investigate this complaint. There is not enough evidence of fault in how the Council communicated with Mr X about the financial assessment to justify our involvement.
8. The Council accepted it had not completed annual financial reviews. It said that was not in line with its policy. That failing meant the Council missed an opportunity to identify it was overpaying Mr X sooner. However, we would not recommend the Council write off the overpayment based on that failing. We would most likely recommend the Council offer Mr X a repayment plan. Mr X has already paid the debt in full. Therefore, there is nothing worthwhile to be achieved by further investigation.

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Final decision

9. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman