The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint that the Council has not helped a family arrange a funeral. This is because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
The complaint
The complainant, whom I refer to as Mr X, complains the Council demanded he send his father’s death certificate to an empty house and has failed to help the family arrange the funeral. He says his father has been in the morgue for more than six months. He also says the Council has not provided other help to his mother.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 an investigation if we decide there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6)) We cannot share information that is confidential to other people.
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council. I also considered our Assessment Code and comments Mr X made in reply to a draft of this decision.
My assessment
Mr X’s father died in late 2021. Mr X is co-executor of the estate. His mother (Mrs A) was in hospital when her husband died. The Council’s social work team provided support to Mrs A while she was in hospital. This included support to help Mrs A make the funeral arrangements. As part of this support the Council asked Mr X for a copy of the death certificate.
Mr X complains the Council demanded he send the death certificate to an empty house despite knowing Mrs A was in hospital and did not have capacity to manage her affairs or arrange the funeral. He says his father is still in the morgue because the Council did not help with the funeral arrangements. Mr X wants an apology for the Council’s negligence and for agreeing to provide help which was not delivered.
In response to his complaint the Council said there was no fault by the Council. It said Mrs A does have capacity to manage her affairs and had not given consent for the Council to be in contact with anyone else.
I cannot share any information with Mr X because it is personal to Mrs A and I do not have consent to share her data. I have considered information provided by the Council and there is nothing to suggest it did anything wrong. For this reason I will not start an investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint because there is insufficient evidence of fault by the Council.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman