Birmingham City Council will have to pay out £67,000 in compensation to a former worker who was forced to retire due to the stress of her job.

Beverley Lancaster started working for the local authority in 1971, aged 16, as a junior clerk in the housing department and progressed to become senior draughtswoman. In 1993 she was redeployed as a "frontline" housing officer in Sutton Coldfield.

Despite promises of training, she did not receive the support necessary to do the job. As a result, she became stressed and started to suffer from depression.

Mrs Lancaster, now 44, said: "I was moved from one discipline, where my role was technical, into another role which was a management one.

"I was thrown in at the deep end dealing with people's problems, such as homelessness, rent arrears and repairs, and tenants who were suffering from terminal illnesses."

Mrs Lancaster persistently asked for training and even requested to extend her part-time job-share post to full-time to get to grips with the new job, but this was refused.

Outbursts of emotion, mood swings and irritability soon developed into bouts of serious clinical depression, resulting ultimately in Mrs Lancaster being retired on ill health grounds in February 1997.

In a separate case, a former worker for Liverpool City Council won an out-of-court settlement of £84,000 after claiming years of intimidation. The decision highlighted the fact that her employer had failed to respond to her earlier complaints.