County council repays £575K
A NEW scandal is brewing at Lancashire county council, which has recently been criticised for budget cuts which impact vulnerable people.
It turns out almost 150 of the most severely disabled people in Lancashire have been repaid over £575,000 after being overcharged for their care by Lancashire county council.
The authority reassessed payments made under the Independent Living Fund (ILF) following a watchdog ruling which concluded that the council had miscalculated the contribution one of its residents had to make towards the cost of their care.
The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) ordered a review of almost 300 other cases, nearly half of which were found to have been affected by a similar mistake.
The LGO originally investigated a complaint brought by the husband of a woman referred to as Mrs X, who required round-the-clock care as a result of a brain injury.
As well as being overcharged, her income was allowed to fall below the legally-required minimum by almost £100 per month.
Mr X complained to the authority in April 2016, when Lancashire county council upheld his complaint verbally and promised to review his wife’s contributions.
But the reassessment did not take place until December 2016, when the council reached the same conclusion – that Mrs X should be contributing £99 per week.
Yet within three months of the case being taken to the LGO, the authority reviewed Mrs X’s case again and decided that her weekly contribution should actually be just £20.
This is a quite appalling failure of public bodies to help the most vulnerable, a ‘computer says’ approach which has had a huge impact on people.
£100 a month is no small amount of money.
Interestingly, this all happened when Labour was in charge of the county council.
They might not be in power any more at County Hall, but those who were in charge back then certainly have questions to answer.
Their argument that the Tory-led administration which replaced them is hurting the vulnerable more through Tory cuts than Labour would have through its cuts rings a bit hollow when you realise their Labour-run adult services department over-charged disabled people to the tune of £500k.