A DISABLED woman has won a high court case against Wokingham Borough Council for care fees of almost £4,000 a month – and the council has been ordered to backdate the payments.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman said that the woman, known as Ms K, is entitled to the money that she should have received in support between July and October 2015.
Although the verdict on the case was originally decided last year, the council applied for a judicial review of the Ombudsman’s decision, arguing a personal injury award settlement of £1,279,000 Ms K received in 1998 should have been sufficient to support her care needs. This had been given as a personal injury award for medical negligence in 1975.
Ms K and her daughter lived in Wokingham between 2006 and 2009. A 2006 assessment in 2006 provide a monthly income of £3,500 to pay for care.
They then returned to Wokingham in June 2015 and Ms K’s solicitor told the Council that a Deputy appointed by the Court of Protection administered the personal injury award and therefore it should be disregarded.
As a result, a new assessment was made, indicating that a budget of £3,910 was needed.
In August that year, the council told Ms K’s solicitor that it had concerns over the award, but were advised that around £47,000 a year had been spent on care, meaning the care element had been spent in 15 years since the 1998 settlement.
In February 2016, the council agreed to reinstate the funding, but would not backdate it, although in April that year it backdated the award to October 2015.
However, the High Court judge found the council’s application ‘totally without merit’ and the Ombudsman is now asking the council to revisit the report and provide the remedy it recommended nearly 12 months ago.
The judge considered that Ms K’s daughter had suffered a financial loss as a result.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman Michael King, said: “The council spent a great deal of time asking the woman’s solicitor to provide information about the use of her personal injury award.
“This information was simply not relevant to the financial assessment of the woman’s circumstances and meant that for more than two months the woman was without the support the council had already agreed she needed.
“The judge has made his ruling and so I now urge Wokingham Borough Council to consider my report as a matter of urgency and pay the woman the money she is entitled to, and which she has been waiting for since last year while the court case was being settled.”
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has asked the council to pay any money she should have received between July 2015 when the council accepted she had eligible needs, and October 2015 when it started making payments.
Cllr Richard Dolinski, executive member for adults’ services, health, wellbeing and housing for Wokingham Borough Council, said: “This is a very difficult and upsetting situation because we have nothing but sympathy for this lady who was left in need of lifelong care due to medical negligence.
“We would never leave a person in this position without care but, the principle we have tried to take a stand on is that the taxpayer should not pay twice for the same person’s care. In this case, the lady concerned was awarded more than £1 million in 1998, of which £729,675 was specifically to pay for her care needs.
“We will however be following the Ombudsman’s recommendation in this case.”
