The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint alleging the Council failed to protect her late relative from financial abuse and coercive behaviour. This is because the complaint is late and there are no good reasons for us to investigate.
The complaint
Mrs X complains the Council failed to protect her late relative, who had dementia, from abuse and neglect.
Mrs X says her relative was being coerced by his new wife. Mrs X says £100,000 was transferred out of her relative’s bank account in 2023 and the relative’s new wife cancelled the relative’s care before he died.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
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 or not done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended) 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 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 the information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
The Council investigated Mrs X’s concerns in 2023 and did not find evidence of abuse or neglect.
Also in 2023, we declined to investigate Mrs X’s complaint. This was because - at that time - it was being investigated by the Police. We told Mrs X she could come back after the Police had concluded their investigation.
Mrs X has now come back to us to advise that the Police decided it would be difficult to prosecute anyone.
We will not investigate. This is because the complaint is late, caught by the time bar on Ombudsman’s powers. And there are no good reasons for us to investigate, even if we decided to exercise discretion, as we are unlikely to find the Council acted with fault given its previous investigation.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mrs X’s complaint because it is late and there are no good reasons to investigate.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman