Bill complaint to be reviewed
Family unknowingly charged for care service
Perth and Kinross Council has been ordered to further consider a complaint about how it failed to tell a family they were being billed for a care service until around a year’s worth of charges had built up.
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) has ruled the family ought to have their complaint considered again by a special committee after PKC denied them the opportunity despite upholding their original complaint.
A summary of the complaint, published online by the SPSO, explained: “Mr and Ms C, who work for a law clinic, complained on behalf of Miss B about the care provided to Miss B’s mother (Mrs A) and the charges for this care, including that there was a long delay in notifying Mrs A’s family about the amount of accumulating arrears.
“Miss B said they had been unaware as a family that the transport taking Mrs A to day care was a chargeable service. She said that by the time the family became aware of the charges, Mrs A had used the service for around a year.
“When they became aware that the transport service was chargeable, they cancelled it.
“Miss B’s complaints about delay and the lack of transparency were both upheld by the council.
“Miss B wanted to take these complaints, along with the other issues she had raised, to a complaints review committee (CRC), an independent body and the final stage of the council’s social work complaints procedure.
“The CRC declined to deal with the complaints that had already been upheld by the council, saying they considered them to be resolved.”
But in its decision on the matter the SPSO ruled: “We found it was unreasonable for the council to decline to deal with upheld complaints at CRCs.
“We found that it was for the complainant to decide whether, or to what extent, individual complaints had been addressed or resolved.
“We therefore upheld the complaint.”
Asked about the SPSO’s ruling a PKC spokesperson said a CRC would now be arranged for the family but did not provide a formal statement.