West Sussex CC has been ordered to make a full apology to a woman for threatening legal action and mishandling her care costs assessment.

A Local Government Ombudsman investigation finds the council failed to follow government guidance and took 18 months before finally ruling that the elderly woman did not need to sell the half-share of her home to fund the cost of residential care.

The woman's daughter jointly owned the property with her mother, but had effectively loaned most of the money to her mother to purchase her share of the property. This was done to giver her parents a sense of ownership of the home, and they had agreed a personal covenant not to sell of transfer any of their share of it, besides to each other.