Shropshire council ‘failed’ to pay carer who quit job to support wife
Shropshire Council has failed to pay £60,000 to a man forced to quit his job to care for his wife, a government watchdog has said.
The payment was one of four recommendations made by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO), which criticised the authority in May for failing to properly support the man.
Now it has released a further report recommending the cash is handed over.
The BBC has asked Shropshire Council for a response.
The LGO said the authority failed to assess the needs of the man’s wife, who has severe mental health problems, between February 2008 and April 2010.
It said it failed to assess Mr Ryan’s needs as a carer and provide sufficient funds to cover aspects of his wife’s care.
No legal power
In its previous report, the LGO recommended the council apologise to the couple, pay £1,000 for the inconvenience of bringing the matter to the LGO’s attention, review its procedures and pay the man £61,270 for the care he provided to his wife.
But the LGO said the authority had only complied with the first three recommendations.
While the watchdog has no legal power to force the authority to pay the cash it has the option of publishing its recommendations in local media if it feels it is being ignored.
LGO Dr Jane Martin said: “Public services must ultimately be accountable to the people that use them, through democratically elected councillors.
“Members of Shropshire Council should now give careful consideration to the contents of my further report.”
