Council unfairly charged fees to man with dementia

Lambeth Council said it regretted that its service "fell short"

A council in south London has been found to have unfairly charged a man with dementia nearly £6,500 in interest and legal fees when he failed to reply to requests for payment of his care.

Lambeth Council has been told by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman that it must improve its working practices after failing to consider the man had dementia, before he passed away.

The council has also been ordered to apologise to the man's daughter and pay back the fees as well as an additional £300 for the distress caused.

A spokesperson for the council said they fully accept the findings and had acted on the ombudsman's recommendations.

The ombudsman said the council had failed to communicate with the man, called Mr Y in its report, about the charges for his care until late 2022, by which time there was a "significant" debt worth £32,813.32.

The council said it did not have a policy on charging interest and legal fees on overdue charges for adult social care, and that it referred debts to solicitors to progress debt recovery on its behalf.

The ombudsman's investigation concluded the actions of both the council and the solicitors were at fault and recommended introducing policies and procedures on charging these costs when it comes to unpaid care charges.

A spokesperson for Lambeth Council said it was committed to providing the "best service possible for all of its residents" and that it worked hard to resolve problems quickly and fairly whenever they arose.

"We are determined to learn from this and improve how we communicate with residents about care charges.

"We regret that our service fell short in this case and remain committed to working with residents and the ombudsman to improve our services going forward."