56 A woman was not satisfied with the local author­ ity’s processing of and decision on her disability pension case. In her view, the local authority had chosen to disregard all medical statements. In addition, she felt that insufficient account had been taken of her special needs in connection with an assessment of her ability to work. The Ombudsman rejected the case as he considered it unlikely that he would be able to change its outcome. He pointed out that his experience from a very large number of similar disability pension cases showed that he usually cannot help the complainant achieve a different decision to the one made by the authorities because decisions on disability pension cases are largely based on medical information and individual assessments. The Ombudsman has no medical expertise and therefore cannot assess whether a citizen is entitled to disability pension. Thus, he is usually unable to determine whether adequate medical evidence has been obtained in a case, the relative value of conflicting medical assess­ments or to what extent an illness af­ fects a person’s ability to work. After a local authority had refused to help a woman pay her gas bill, her heating and hot water were cut off. The woman lodged an appeal with the Social Tribunal – which stated that the average case processing time was nine to ten months. The Ombudsman was unable to consider the woman’s complaint about the local authority’s decision until the authorities had made a final decision. However, he forwarded her complaint to the Social Tribunal, asking the Tribunal on her behalf to expedite the case. Soon afterwards, the Tribunal made a decision. ‘Expediting requests’ are a tool often used by the Ombudsman, typically in cases which have not progressed for several months. In this case, it happened earlier because the woman had no hot water or heating. A local authority’s citizen advisor had criticised the local authority’s processing time in a disa­ bility pension case. The Ombudsman rejected the case as the citizen advisor had already expressed criticism of the case processing time. The Ombudsman also attached importance to information from the local authority that a decision would be made on the case within three months. The Ombudsman receives a huge number of complaints every year. He prioritises the cases and in this connection considers, among other things, whether an Ombudsman investigation is likely to help the complainant.