Summary: Mrs X complained the Council failed to respond to concerns she raised about her son’s direct payments account. We found the Council failed to properly administer the direct payments account and there was significant delay in the Council’s response to Mrs X’s queries and complaint. The Council agreed to put the errors right and make a payment to reflect the added time trouble and distress the matter caused.

The complaint

1. Mrs X complains that the Council failed to respond to her concerns about the failure to uplift her son’s direct payments to take account of inflation. She complained the Council has not responded to her complaint and it has not properly explained payments that her son has received. She complains that despite some additional payments being received, there has been no breakdown or explanation of the payments to confirm the matter has been resolved. The impact was that her son did not receive the correct payments from 2017 and they have had to keep contacting the Council because of the lack of communication.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word fault to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. If there has been fault which has caused an injustice, we may suggest a remedy. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26(1) and 26A(1), as amended)
3. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I spoke to Mrs X and considered the information she provided. I asked the Council for information and I considered its response to the complaint.
5. Mrs X and the Council 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. In August 2022 Mrs X complained about a number of issues affecting her son’s care and issues with direct payments (I refer to her son as Y in this statement).
7. Mrs X complaint to us was about issues with Y’s direct payments and care charges. Mrs X first questioned the direct payments Y was receiving in November 2021. She queried why Y’s direct payments had not been uplifted since they began in 2017. In her complaint she explained that despite repeated correspondence to raise the issue since 2021, the Council had not responded to explain what had happened.
8. Mrs X noted that although no-one had responded to the complaint about direct payments, a random amount was paid into Y’s bank account in February 2022 but this was never explained, so she did not know what it represented.
9. In addition to the issues with direct payments, Mrs X queried why Y was receiving invoices for care charges. She stated that Y had consistently made the required contribution to his care directly into his direct payment account. She stated that since the first invoice she had asked the Council several times to explain why additional charges were being invoiced. She had not received an answer.
10. The Council acknowledged Mrs X’s complaint on 4 August 2022. On 31 August the Council stated it would take longer than usual to respond to the complaint.
11. In October 2022, while waiting for a complaint response, Mrs X told the complaints team that two further amounts were paid into Y’s direct payments account on 9 September (£699.70) and 7 October 2022 (£5004.42) without explanation. The Council acknowledged this and stated the matter was complex but they were continuing to work on the complaint.
12. In November 2022, January 2023 and February 2023 the Council told Mrs X the matter was still being considered and the Council apologised for the ongoing delay.
13. In March 2023 the Council wrote to Mrs X to say Y’s direct payments had been amended with effect from June 2022. Y needed to repay an overpayment of £1545.08 as a result. The letter made no reference to the unresolved complaint.
14. Because the Council had not responded to the complaint in a reasonable timescale, we began an investigation.

The Council’s response to the complaint

15. The Council accepted that Mrs X’s complaint had been outstanding for too long. It explained to us that this had been caused by:
• a breakdown in communication between several teams and a failure to identify who was responsible for resolving the queries about the backdated uplift of Y’s direct payments.
• the complexity of the situation, and further complications caused by the implementation of a new computer system in November 2021.
• pressures within the Adult Social Care department. It stated there were staffing issues and staff turnover that may have been a contributory factor to the Council’s ability to respond to the complaint.
16. The Council noted the other concerns Mrs X raised about Y’s care had been responded to, but the complexity and involvement of multiple teams, including external IT providers had led to the problems in responding to Mrs X about the financial issues.
17. The Council confirmed there had been a failure to uprate Y’s direct payments since 2017. This had happened because Y’s care was not properly categorised on the Council’s computer system. Because the incorrect category was used, Y’s payments were not automatically uplifted as they should have been. The Council offered an apology to Mrs X and to Y for the error. It also told us it was contacting other service users who had been affected in the same way. The Council confirmed it would be taking steps to address the issue for those service users as a priority.
18. The Council provided a breakdown of the payments it had made, and the payments that it should have made.
19. In addition to not uplifting the direct payments, the Council found that it made an error when it installed a new computer system. The error meant the Council had paid Y’s direct payments gross rather than net since September 2022. The error also led to the Council sending the invoices for care that Mrs X had been questioning.
20. To remedy the complaint the Council:
• Provided a breakdown of the direct payments made to Y since 2017, and what should have been paid. This showed that the Council had underpaid Y by £2022.94 which it stated it would credit to Y’s account. Because of the complexity of the matter it stated senior officers would be happy to meet with Mrs X to talk through the issues/breakdown of payments.
• Confirmed that its records would be updated to correctly categorise Y’s care as direct payments, so that he would receive automatic annual uplifts in future.
• Offered a sincere apology to Mrs X and Y and to recognise the inconvenience and unintended distress, it offered to make them a goodwill payment of £500.
• Reviewed how it could better manage complaints of a complex nature involving multiple teams, for example Adult Social Care and Finance. It had agreed that in future, meetings would be facilitated by the Customer Engagement Team to bring teams together at an early stage of complex complaints and agree how they would be managed and responded to.

Conclusions

21. There was fault by the Council. It failed to respond to Mrs X’s complaint within a reasonable timescale. Although the Council sent some acknowledgements and holding emails, there was no tangible progress in resolving Mrs X’s complaint for well over a year. During that time, the Council sent further confusing correspondence and billing information to Mrs X and did not explain this when she queried it. This was undoubtedly stressful and frustrating for Mrs X and Y. I appreciate that the Council acknowledged this in its response to our enquiries.
22. There was fault in the way the Council administered Y’s direct payments account. We now understand that an initial error of recording was the root cause of a failure to uplift Y’s direct payments annually, as should have happened. There was a further error when Y’s contribution was not deducted and instead, bills were sent to Mrs X without explanation. This added to the frustration and stress given the Council did not explain its actions in addition to not responding to the complaint.
23. I welcome the confirmation from the Council that it will take action to identify and resolve where the same issue has affected other service users.
24. I also welcome the action the Council has taken to address how complex, multi departmental complaints of this nature can be better handled in future.

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Agreed action

25. Within four weeks of our final decision the Council should:
• Meet Mrs X to discuss the issues it has found in dealing with Y’s direct payments and the breakdown of what it should have paid to Y as direct payments since 2017.
• Make a payment to Y’s direct payment account of £2022.94 to correct the errors made on Y’s account.
• Send Mrs X and Y a written apology for the errors made on the direct payment account and for the significant delay in responding.
• Make a payment to Mrs X of £500 to recognise the time and trouble spent pursuing the complaint and the stress the matter caused.
26. The Council should provide us with evidence it has complied with the above actions.

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Final decision

27. There was fault by the Council. I have now completed my investigation and closed my file on the basis the Council takes the agreed actions.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman