54 A man who was absent from work due to sickness contacted the local authority to ask about the possibility of being granted disability pension. He anticipated being dismissed soon as he had been absent from work for a long time, and he did not expect to work again. The following year he returned to the local authority. As expected, he had been dismissed and he now applied for sickness benefit for a period after his dismissal. His application was rejected by both the local authority and the Employment Appeals Board. He was not entitled to benefit in arrears but should have applied at the time of his dismissal. However, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, the local authority had an obligation to give the man guidance on the sickness benefit rules when it was first approached, even though he was asking about something else. On the Ombudsman’s recommendation, the Employment Appeals Board reopened the case. The Ombudsman can recommend that an authority reopen a case and make a new decision, but he cannot order the authority to reach a different conclusion. A dentist was unhappy that he was not allowed to take early retirement until his dentist’s equipment had been picked up by a buyer. This was the decision of the Employment Committee of the National Social Appeals Board. By contrast, the dentist b ­ elieved that his business activities had ceased when he ­cancelled his ­so-called provider number. The Ombudsman returned the case to the Employment Committee, asking it to explain to the dentist why the time at which he cancelled his provider number was not decisive. The Ombudsman can ask an authority to give a citizen more detailed grounds for a decision, for instance if a complaint lodged with him suggests that misunderstandings exist between complainant and authority. While the Ombudsman was processing a family reunification case, the European Court of Justice pronounced a judgment. In the Ombudsman’s opinion, the immigration authorities should assess whether this judgment was relevant to the person’s right of residence in Denmark. He therefore returned the case to the Ministry of Refugees, ­Immigration and Integration with a request that it consider this issue. The Ombudsman keeps up to date with judgments from the European Court of Justice etc. because Danish authorities are bound by them.