ABERYSTWYTH Town Council has been ordered to pay £1,500 compensation to a former clerk by the Pensions Ombudsman over the way it handled an ill-health application.

A bitter row erupted in September 2013 when then-town clerk Jim Griffiths was suspended on full pay pending an investigation into alleged misconduct.

Mr Griffiths resigned in October 2014, shortly before a disciplinary hearing, on medical advice due to mental health issues arising from the battle with councillors over his job.

While Mr Griffiths said this week he is continuing to pursue a case against the council over the way he left his £40,000 post – he has been handed a cash sum by the Pensions Ombudsman as part of a separate complaint.

Two years ago Mr Griffiths, 57, complained that Aberystwyth council was refusing to release £22,000 in pension funds early on medical grounds – despite him being unemployed and surviving on benefits. Mr Griffiths was forced to put his home up for sale.

A letter from Dr Shuja Din, senior occupational health consultant for Hywel Dda NHS Trust, to the council at the time said that Mr Griffiths’ “psychological ill-health symptoms” are “wholly or mainly attributable to his work” and will “persist for the foreseeable future”.

Mr Griffiths’ GP, Richard Evans of Padarn Surgery, told the council in a letter that Mr Griffiths has been “significantly incapacitated by a major reactive stress disorder”.

In a letter to Aberystwyth Town Council in July, the Pensions Ombudsman said that the authority “should compensate Mr Griffiths for the significant distress and inconvenience” the issue caused him.

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