An East London council has been forced to apologise and pay £1,000 in compensation to a vulnerable resident after it suspended her social care payments without having an alternative plan in place.
Breakdown in Communication Leads to Suspended Care
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) found that Hackney Council failed to provide adequate support for a woman, referred to as 'Miss X', after it stopped payments to her sister who was acting as her carer. The council had agreed back in 2020 that Miss X was entitled to 42 hours per week of direct payments to fund her personal care and community access. However, these payments were never fully implemented for years.
In 2023, the council halted the direct payments due to legitimate concerns about how the financial support was being managed by her sister, 'Ms Y'. This decision left the vulnerable woman frequently alone and isolated from her community, causing her significant distress and frustration.
Ombudsman Investigation and Council Fault
Ms Y lodged a formal complaint with the LGSCO in July 2024. She argued that the council had not agreed on a proper support plan for her sister and had failed to pay the full 42 hours of direct payments since the original agreement in 2020.
The council described it as a complex case, noting repeated attempts to engage with Ms Y about the spending of the funds. Miss X had specifically requested her sister manage the payments because she did not want assistance with her personal care from non-family members.
In early 2023, the council asked Ms Y to provide annotated bank statements, which she did not supply, leading to the suspension of payments. Ms Y did not query the suspension until October 2023, later stating it was impractical to provide years of annotated statements.
Although the council agreed in 2024 to restart the payments and backdate them, it failed to conduct an urgent review of Miss X's care needs as promised. Ombudsman Amerdeep Clarke upheld the complaint and ordered the £1,000 payment to recognise the council's failure to meet Miss X's needs since June 2023.
Council Response and Lessons Learned
A spokesperson for Hackney Council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that they take their duty to support vulnerable residents extremely seriously.
"We fully accept the Ombudsman's findings and have apologised to the resident for any distress this has caused," the spokesperson said. "We have used the findings to seek to ensure that we learn from this in the future."
The Ombudsman's report acknowledged that the council was not at fault for initially suspending the payments due to Ms Y's lack of engagement. However, it was found at fault for not resolving the underlying issue and allowing the situation to drift, which risked future problems.
