Council rapped over failure to properly carry out financial assessment following Ombudsman investigation

North Yorkshire County Council has been criticised in a report by the Local Government and Social Ombudsman which found that the local authority had failed to carry out a financial assessment it had agreed to undertake following an earlier upheld complaint to the Ombudsman.

In 2018 the council agreed to complete a disability-related expenditure assessment of a young woman, to include her housing and transport costs, following her initial complaint to the Ombudsman.

In response to the complaint, the council visited the woman to assess her needs in July 2018, but North Yorkshire then failed to share the assessment with the woman or her parents until the Ombudsman intervened more than a year late in October 2019.

Michael King, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said that the delay had prevented the family from challenging the council assessment and its calculations for 15 months.

He added: "While the family has not lost out financially by the delay, they have been left uncertain about the true level of support they should have been receiving.”

The Ombudsman’s most recent report recommends that the council apologise to the parents for not completing the assessment for 15 months after the agreed deadline.

North Yorkshire has also offered to pay the family £250 for their unnecessary time and trouble in pursuing the matter.

The council has been approached for comment.

Adam Carey