THE following is a number of case histories from the Ombudsman's report:
An old age pensioner was awarded arrears of £17,000 because he did not know he was entitled to claim an allowance for his wife for the past 20 years, according to the Ombudsman's report. The payment, for an adult dependant was introduced by the Department of Social Welfare in 1974.
Although the Department initially refused to pay any arrears, it accepted the Ombudsman's argument that arrears should be paid from October 1985 to October 1993. This was because a Department official visited the man in 1985 and failed to advise him of his correct pension entitlement at that time.
The Department of Education has agreed to keep examination scripts for longer, following a complaint to the Ombudsman. One woman complained because she believed her son had been incorrectly awarded too low a grade in a 1994 geography paper.
When the Ombudsman investigated, he found the Department had already destroyed the script. Following his intervention, the Department agreed to keep all examination scripts in the future until November 30th of the examination year.
Where results have been appealed, the script in question will be stored for a year after the result of the appeal has been issued, or a year after correspondence on the matter has ceased.
Telecom Eireann was accused of discrimination against a tenant in local authority housing because it asked for a second guarantee for her account even though she had paid her bills. Telecom withdrew its demand for a second guarantee when the Ombudsman became involved and accepted his recommendation to give the customer a credit of £100.
Another Telecom subscriber was disconnected and given a bill of £1,147 in connection with premium rate calls to sex chat lines which he claimed he never made. Following the Ombudsman's intervention, Telecom rebated in full the final bill and reconnected the telephone line free of charge.
The Ombudsman welcomed a commitment to review rules for tax relief, which exclude people from claiming for psychotherapy services. The legislation in this area is almost 30 years old and is being examined by the Department of Finance.
Another complaint concerned an application to a county council for permission to develop a private family burial ground. The name of the council was omitted from the report to safeguard the identity of the complainant.
A delay of 20 months in processing the application meant he had to resubmit his application under new planning rules. The council acknowledged the delay and agreed to pay the costs of the new application under the new rules.