Section 7 - Assistance with complaints to relevant authorities
This Section gives the Commissioner the power to provide whatever help an individual older person needs, and that includes financial help, to enable the older person to bring a complaint to the organisation or organisations involved (the ‘relevant authority’).This includes acting on behalf of an older person both in making the complaint and in any investigation or other proceedings conducted by the organisation or authority following the complaint.
However in deciding whether to provide assistance to an older person the Commissioner may take account of whether there is another organisation or person likely to support the older person in taking a complaint.
For the purposes of this section alone, the term “relevant authority” also includes the Northern Ireland Office, the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints, the Assembly Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, the Information Commissioner and the Pensions Ombudsman. This will enable the Commissioner to be able to help an older person bring a complaint to these bodies within the remit of their statutory complaints provisions.