SUMMARIES OF SELECTED CASES The grounds given by the authorities were that due to the man’s health problems, it was not sufficiently likely that he could be available for full-time work under normal conditions of employment and pay. In May 2011, the Employment Committee of the National Social Appeals Board referred the case back to the then National Directorate of Labour, particularly with reference to the fact that the medical expert opinion on which the decision was based did not concern the man’s general ability to work but his ability to work as an upper secondary school teacher. It was therefore the Employment Committee’s opinion that the medical expert opinion did not in itself establish that the man was not available for work in other fields. However, a new medical expert opinion had not been obtained when the Employment Committee made a new decision in the case in March 2012. The Ombudsman did not find the case to have been adequately investigated, as in his opinion, more medical information should have been obtained together with other information which could serve to throw light on the man’s general availability for work, including further information about which jobs the man thought he could manage. Consequently, the Ombudsman recommended that the Employment Committee of the National Social Appeals Board reopen the case. The Ombudsman stated that the Employment Committee’s duty to obtain other information relevant to the availability assessment was more rigorous because the man was working at the time when he wanted to go on early retirement benefit, as the availability issue consequently could not be clarified through information on job searching and completed activation measures, etc. The Ombudsman added that the authorities have a general obligation to ensure that individuals who are still working at the time at which they want to go on early retirement benefit are not placed in a poorer legal position than individuals in the activation system. 2013-27. Repayment of social security benefits A municipality received an anonymous tip-off that a woman and a man who both received social security benefits as ‘effectively single’ lived in a marriagelike relationship. As a result of the tip-off, the municipality investigated the woman’s and the man’s situations. 141