Our Own Initiative report into how the Department for Communities (the Department) administer Personal Independence Payment placed a requirement on the Department to provide us with an Action Plan, outlining how it intends to address and implement our 33 recommendations.
We will be operating a reduced telephone service on the week beginning 20 December 2021. This will allow our senior case workers some additional time to clear their casework, as far as possible, before the Christmas closure.
Our latest Quarterly Bulletin gives an update on our work to simplify and standardise complaints handling in the public sector, as well as links to some of our most recent investigation reports.
We received a total of 927 complaints during 2020-21. The Ombudsman’s Report provides further details of these complaints, and includes summaries of some of our casework from the year.
Our recent investigation made 33 recommendations to improve how the Department for Communities (the Department) administer Personal Independence Payment.
Since 1969 my Office has been dealing with complaints about public services. Over that time we have dealt with around 40,000 complaints and we have worked with public bodies to support them to handle complaints well.
We launched a public consultation on our proposals for new complaints handling standards for public bodies in Northern Ireland on 10 June 2021. The consultation period was due to run for a 12 week period and end on 2 September 2021.
Former councillor Ian Stevenson (Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council) has been disqualified from being a councillor until 30 April 2025 following an Adjudication Hearing held on 28 June.
