The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint about the refusal of a disabled facilities grant. There is insufficient evidence of fault to justify our involvement and part of the complaint is late.
The complaint
Mrs X complained the Council accepted her application for a disabled facilities grant, but later cancelled this because the work had not been completed. She also complained about the conduct of the officer who visited her home to explain the outcome of the application.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
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) 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 any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or we could not add to any previous investigation by the organisation, or further investigation would not lead to a different outcome.
(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mrs X and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mrs X applied for a grant for repairs to her property in 2019. The Council agreed the grant and a contractor was appointed. After several failed attempts by the contractor to gain access to the property, the case was closed in 2021.
We expect people to complain to us within 12 months of the events complained about. Although Mrs X may not have known the case was closed in 2021, she was aware that the agreed works had not been completed, as agreed. There is no evidence to show she could not have complained to the Council and to us sooner. We will not investigate the events 2019 to 2021 as the complaint is late.
Mrs X contacted the Council again about the repairs in December 2023. The Council told her the discretionary grant was no longer available as the scheme had ended in 2022.
The Council considered whether it could award a disabled facilities grant (DFG) and two officers visited Mrs X at home to discuss this in March 2024. They concluded the proposed works did not meet the criteria for a DFG because the works were not reasonable and practicable, and because the extent of the works would far exceed the maximum grant available. It confirmed this by letter and said it would arrange for Mrs X’s support worker to visit to discuss how she wanted to proceed.
Mrs X complained to the Council that the conduct of officer 1 when they visited in March 2024 was “not right”, the information they provided was incorrect and she was unhappy with the letter sent. In its complaint response, the Council said officer 1 acted with empathy and professionalism, the information provided was correct and the letter was accurate, although it appreciated she was disappointed with the outcome.
We will not investigate this further. The Council has explored whether the works Mrs X wanted met the criteria for a DFG. It concluded the criteria was not met and explained its reasons for deciding that. It is not our role to say whether the decision was correct. Unless there is fault in the decision-making process, we cannot comment on the decision reached. In this case, there is insufficient of evidence of fault to justify our involvement.
Although Mrs X complained about the conduct of officer 1, she did not raise any specific concerns about the way they acted. Officer 1 did not visit alone, and the Council did not find evidence of poor conduct when it investigated this. We will not investigate this further. It is unlikely that further investigation would lead to a different outcome and there is insufficient injustice to warrant out involvement.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because the complaint about events in 2019 to 2021 is late, there is insufficient evidence of fault for us to investigate the Council’s decision she did not qualify for a DFG, and we could not add to the Council’s investigation of the conduct complaint.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman