Complaint to Solicitor: Should I escalate to Legal Ombudsman or not?

Hi,
I complained to my soliciors and have received an offer from them, however I still believe they didnt act accordingly and I wonder wether I should persue it with the Legal Ombudsman or not?

I was the Respondent in a Divorce/Financial order, from the start I made it clear I couldnt afford the legal bills and needed help from people to pay them for me. The Financial order was drawing to a close with an out of court offer and around that time, I received another solicitors bill over £1k, I stated that I could no longer ask for people to pay for me and I wouldnt be able to afford this anymore which left me in a vunerable situation.
My solicitor stated that they therefore wouldnt be able to continue working on my case and I would have to represent myself.
So my responce was that to clarify how I go about this/get my file etc.
However 'right' at this point in the middle of this discussion, the offer was agreed and without following up my disucssion my solicitor went ahead and continued working and completing the forms to continue etc.
Each email I then sent was charged for - despite those emails really being about how to represent myself/what the predicted cost would be to finish the case etc.
In my mind I made it clear I couldnt pay and that they shouldnt be continuing to work on my case. They said (I quote their responce) "took it" the client wanted us to continue.

I complained that the work shouldnt have continued when the solicitor told me if I couldnt pay (which Id clarified) then they couldnt continue and that as I DID represent myself to finalise the financial order, how did I end up with such a huge additional solicitors bill.

It appears each email I sent in, wether it be a sentance or few words, was charged at £145 and every email sent to me £220.
I nievely didnt think they would charge so much when the purpose of the emails were to discuss that I cant afford it and to represent myself.

They state the charges are accurate and that only as a gesture of goodwill, will they knock off a quarter of the bill.

How would this complaint be viewed by the legal Ombudsman;
Should a solicitor stop work when the client states they dont have the funds to pay anymore?
Should a solicitor make a 'presumption' to continue and charge?
(Should a solicitor charge so much for a email discussing the above facts?)
Thanks for any guidance..

Were you explicit in your instructions to your solicitor about them stopping work on your case? Saying you don't have the funds for continued representation isn't the same as expressly stating that you no longer want them to carry out any work on your behalf, and that you need to disengage them.