South Tyneside Council has paid £500 compensation to a disabled man who had to wait months to receive home help and home adaptation assessments.

The pay-out follows an investigation into the case by the local government ombudsman, Patricia Thomas.

She found that after assessing the client, who cannot be named, for home help in June 2000 an officer from the council's social services department delayed writing the assessment report for five weeks and then wrongly recorded him as rejecting the offer of a home help.

The correct assessment was not established until December. But even when the home help was due to start in February 2001, they were unable to do so on the day the client was led to expect.

It took the council six months to complete an assessment and carry out the works for home adaptations, and there was also a delay of seven weeks before the council responded to the client's complaint.