THE council will still be taking a man to court over a £61,000 care bill despite wrongly telling him he owed nothing.

Worcestershire County Council has been forced to admit its mistake in telling a man he did not have to cover the cost of his sister-in-law’s care only to issue him with a £61,751 bill nearly a year after she had died.

The expensive mistake by the council meant the man, who is only referred to as ‘Mr X’ in an investigation by the local government ombudsman, shared out the money left in his sister-in-law’s will based on an “unequivocal” assurance he was not responsible for the cost of the care.

To add insult to injury, the council, despite admitting its mistake, said it will still be taking Mr X, to court in a bid to recover the money.

The local government ombudsman ordered the county council to apologise and pay £2,250 to Mr X for the “distress and anxiety” caused by providing the wrong information and ignoring the complaint while still chasing

According to the local government ombudsman, the county council discovered it had made an error in August last year and sent a financial assessment to Mr X in order to work out how much it was owed for his sister-in-law’s care between October 2018 and 2020 before she died.

Mr X ignored the assessment, so the council billed him £61,751 for the cost of the care.

The council then ignored Mr X’s complaint for ten months but did continue to chase him for the money.

The council eventually apologised for the delay in responding but said it would be continuing to recover costs.

Mark Fitton, the county council’s interim strategic director of people, said: “We would like to apologise for the errors made in this case.

“We have accepted the findings and recommendations given to us by the Local Government Ombudsman and we will be looking at where improvements can be made in the future with this process to ensure this does not happen again.”