Liverpool City Council overpaid private care companies by £2.5m, says report

The report found a range of companies involving in overnight care support for the elderly were overpaid

Private care companies in Liverpool have been overpaid by more than £2.5m by the city's council, a report found.

It said overnight care support groups for the elderly in the city were paid too much because of "deficiencies" in systems used from 2014 until 2019.

Liverpool City Council said while agreements were in place to recover £740,000, it remained in dispute with some businesses about the other £1.8m.

The cabinet is set to approve plans on Friday about how to best respond.

Documents seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service have warned there were several hurdles to clawing the £1.8m back.

'Dispute'

The report said an analysis of accounts to identify overpayments, done with the help of the care companies themselves, had also identified "underpayments and other discrepancies".

"The council has a duty to recover as much of the £1.818m that remains in dispute as possible," the report said.

"However, the council must also be mindful of its duty under the Care Act 2014 to ensure sustainability and sufficiency within the market and of the risk of creating service disruption or failure in its actions to recover the disputed sums," it added.

The cabinet is set to approve plans for a number of other avenues to be pursued instead, including negotiation, conciliation, independent mediation or arbitration.

It has not ruled out the possibility of legal action if deemed necessary, though.

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