A DISABLED woman granted more than £1million following a medical negligence case is to be awarded a further £10,000 in a backdated care package from the council.

The woman, who has not been identified, received a personal injury award in 1998 which Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) argued should have been sufficient to support her care needs.

However, a High Court judge found the council’s application ‘totally without merit’ and the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman is now asking the council to revisit the report it originally published in February 2017 calling on them to pay the woman the money she should have received.

The woman’s representative first approached WBC in June 2015, and in July 2015 the council assessed the woman as needing a care package totalling £3,910 per month. 

However, the council did not start paying this money until October 2015, after spending months asking questioning the woman’s financial affairs.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Michael King, said: “The council spent a great deal of time asking the woman’s solicitor to provide information about the use of her personal injury award. This information was simply not relevant to the financial assessment of the woman’s circumstances and meant that for more than two months the woman was without the support the council had already agreed she needed.”

“The judge has made his ruling and so I now urge Wokingham council to consider my report as a matter of urgency and pay the woman the money she is entitled to, and which she has been waiting for since last year while the court case was being settled.”

Cllr Richard Dolinski , executive member for adults’ services, health, wellbeing and housing, said: “This is a very difficult and upsetting situation because we have nothing but sympathy for this lady who was left in need of lifelong care due to medical negligence. 

“We would never leave a person in this position without care but, the principle we have tried to take a stand on is that the taxpayer should not pay twice for the same person’s care. In this case, the lady concerned was awarded more than a million pounds in 1998, of which £729,675 was specifically to pay for her care needs.

“We will however be following the Ombudsman’s recommendation in this case.”