social worker neglecting to advise elderly about benefits when doing an assessment

This morning I have visited the home of an elderly couplem both 91, who for years have had a care package in place.  The family has also paid for a night time carer as both parents have a dementia. The husband died this week and I completed the Attendance Allowance upgrade for the wife this morning.  Is there a precedent or case law for claiming back some of the care costs from the council because of their failure to notify family of their entitlement to claim the higher rate?
thank you.

Why do you say “you hope not”?  I am not sure what you are referring to. Thanks

Successfully founding a negligence claim for acts of omissions leading to pure economic loss is an extremely difficult thing to do even where that act is that of a public authority.  To do so you would have to establish that the social worker owed a duty of care to the service user.  Of course, in terms of social care, he probably does.  But in respect of benefits, something which does not usually and specifically form part of the job specification, then possibly not.  A failure to signpost possibly doesn’t either.  If a duty of dare cannot be established then negligence doesn’t come into it.  If it can then you would have to prove negligence.  I’m not a specialist in this area so you might want to talk to a solicitor.

Were the council acting as corporate appointee’s for your clients?

there was a case where a local authority was successfully sued for failing to make a CICA claim in respect of a looked after child who had been abused and would have won such a claim had
it been made… can’t currently remember the case name, but definitely read it.  Course, that’s slightly different as in that situation the LA is “in loco parentis”; however, in the case of people without capacity, i anticipate a good argument on assumption of duty by the LA could be made (albeit one would have thought a family member had by this time been appointed to look after the money)