TORONTO -- The Ontario agency responsible for enforcing court-ordered child and spousal support payments has been singled out again by the ombudsman because of a growing number of complaints.

There were 1,167 complaints about the Family Responsibility Office in 2014-15, a slight increase over the previous year but up considerably from 794 complaints two years ago, Ombudsman Andre Marin said in his annual report Tuesday.

There's "a new wrinkle" that saw 350 people denied $845,000 in family payments they were entitled to because they had also been receiving welfare or disability support and then moved off the social assistance program, added Marin.

"These are people with children who should be getting that money -- didn't get that money, and again this year we're looking at 274 (families) totalling $214,000," he said. "Improved, but still over $200,000 not going to needy parents."

There are also serious problems in cases where the person paying support or the recipients live outside Ontario, something the ombudsman raised in previous reports, and there are ongoing problems with mistakes by staff at the FRO.

The report cites the case of one woman who complained she stopped getting support payments for more than a year, and couldn't get anyone at the agency to call her back, and it took Marin's staff more than half a year to get her the $10,000 she was owed.

"We raised the issue with senior FRO staff, and more than seven months after the problem was identified, it finally acknowledged that the case worker had wrongly determined that the woman was no longer entitled to support," wrote Marin.

The ombudsman also took aim at Ontario's justice system in his report, saying police should face charges if they refuse to co-operate with the civilian Special Investigations Unit that probes officer-involved shootings and other incidents.

Marin also said Ontario jails too often put inmates into isolation or segregation for 23 hours a day, including sick prisoners who should be in an infirmary.

"By legislation, when someone's in segregation there are various mandates for reviews, and within 30 days there must be a report back to the Ministry" of Correctional Services, said Marin. "The detention centre had fudged (the facts), cooked the books, realizing after the fact that they didn't do the reviews, and that's a great concern because the cover-up is worse than the crime."

Marin, who hopes to be reappointed for a third, five-year term as ombudsman, admitted he made mistakes in May with a social media campaign urging his 31,700 Twitter followers to pressure Premier Kathleen Wynne's Liberals to keep him in office.  He then retweeted dozens of posts from supporters, including ones that accused the Liberals of turning Ontario into a "banana republic" and another saying Wynne is "more corrupt" than FIFA, soccer's scandal-plagued governing body.

"Things were happening fast that night, and the more you're on Twitter, it's like a highway, you can have fender benders," he said. "We all make mistakes."

The NDP said Marin had "done a great job" in his 10 years in office and had a good track record as ombudsman.