DWP Complaints - Make Sure You Understand The System

A complaint is defined as “any expression of dissatisfaction about the service provided which is not resolved by operational staff as normal business”.

Unresolved issues are referred to Complaint Resolution Managers to investigate.

If the complainant is unhappy with this response, they can ask for the matter to be referred to senior managers for a review. This is the business’ final response.

Complainants who are unhappy with the business’ final response can ask DWP’s independent complaints reviewer, the Independent Case Examiner (ICE), to look at their complaint.

How to complain about the service you get from the Department for Work and Pensions or from an organisation that provides its services.

ABC Note: This is a lot of useful information about making a complaint below from the DWP. First, we have published here the latest complaint figures. This information is from the government. It is important that you take the right track when dealing with your issue. Stay calm, put everything in writing and file all your DWP correspondence in date order. Get your work coach to write in your Claimant Commitment booklet the date of your next meeting. True the DWP are texting people with appointment times but this is good practice. 

If you phone in, make sure you record the date and time. Better still put it in writing. On XYZ, you agreed to do this, and I agreed to do that. In any later hearing what's on paper will become very important. You need a methodical well organised approach. 

If things go seriously wrong do get specialist advice and NEVER attend an interview under caution without taking along legal help. Please visit our ABC database for expert legal assistance. It can be fixed fee and affordable even on benefits: http://www.abcorg.net/legal/law-firms 

FROM THE DWP

DWP businesses – complaints recorded from 1 April 2017

2. Independent Case Examiner – complaints recorded from 1 April 2017

This complaints procedure applies to:

• Jobcentre Plus
• The Pension Service
• Disability and Carers Service
• DWP Debt Management

Child maintenance complaints follow a different procedure.

You can contact the DWP about any aspect of the service you’ve received, including:

• mistakes that have been made
• unreasonable delays
• how you’ve been treated
• not being kept informed

If you disagree with a decision we’ve made, read Complaints, mandatory reconsiderations and appeals are different below.

How to complain

If you think we’ve got something wrong, let the office you have been dealing with know as soon as possible. We’ll do our best to put things right.

You can contact us by phone, in person or in writing. When you contact us, please tell us:

• your National Insurance number – unless you are an employer
• your full name, address and contact numbers
• what happened, when it happened and how it affected you
• what you want to happen to put things right
• You can also make an online complaint about Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit

Who to contact

Use the contact details at the top of any letters we’ve sent you or use the Who to contact details below.

What happens next

If we’ve made a mistake, we’ll put it right as soon as possible and apologise immediately. If you’ve experienced unfair treatment or suffered financially, we may consider making a special payment to you.

If you’re not satisfied with our initial response, or we need to investigate further, you can ask for your complaint to go to a Complaint Resolution Manager.

They will contact you, usually by phone, to talk about your complaint and agree how to investigate it. They will contact you again within 15 working days to tell you the outcome or when you can expect a response, if it will take longer.

If the Complaint Resolution Manager doesn’t resolve your complaint

If the Complaint Resolution Manager doesn’t resolve your complaint, we’ll ask you if you want your complaint to go to a senior manager. If you agree, the senior manager will ask for an independent internal review of your complaint. They will contact you within 15 working days to tell you the outcome or when you can expect a response, if it will take longer.

If you’re not satisfied

If you’ve been through all our complaints stages, received our final response and still aren’t satisfied, you can ask the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) to look at your complaint. You must contact them within 6 months of getting our final response and send them a copy of it.

The Independent Case Examiner can’t look at matters of law or government policy. They won’t look at benefit or maintenance decisions, for example, because you can appeal against these.

If they accept your complaint, they will look at what happened and what we did about it. If they think we should have done more, they will ask us to put matters right. They will act as an impartial referee and you will not be charged for their service.

If you don’t agree with the response from the Independent Case Examiner, you can ask your MP (or any other MP) to send your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Complaints, mandatory reconsiderations and appeals are different

We can’t treat a complaint as a challenge to a benefit decision (a request for ‘mandatory reconsideration’) or an appeal against a benefit decision, overpayment decision, child maintenance assessment or sanction.

Read about how to request a mandatory reconsideration of a benefits decision.

You can’t appeal to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal about a benefits decision until you get a response to your mandatory reconsideration request. This is called a ‘mandatory reconsideration notice’. You can appeal to the tribunal if you think the decision in the mandatory reconsideration notice is wrong.

Complain about an organisation that provides a service for DWP

Other organisations sometimes provide DWP services, for example Work Programme providers. If you’re not satisfied with the service you’ve received from an organisation like this, complain to them first and give them a chance to put the matter right. If you don’t agree with their response, they must tell you how you can take your complaint further.

If you’re still not satisfied with their final response to your complaint, you can ask the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) to investigate.

Who to contact

Use the contact details at the top of any letters we’ve sent you or the details below.

Our services are available Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, unless stated otherwise.

Find out about call charges

Access to Work complaints

Telephone: 0800 121 7479 
Textphone: 0800 121 7579

Child maintenance complaints

Contact the Child Maintenance Service or Child Support Agency.

Complaints about the department

Important DWP Links.

1. How to complain
2. What happens next
3. If you’re not satisfied
4. Service standards
5. Complaints, mandatory reconsiderations and appeals are different
6. Complain about an organisation that provides a service for DWP
7. Who to contact

If you have a complaint about the Department for Work and Pensions itself, write to:

DWP Complaints 
Post Handling Site B 
Wolverhampton 
WV99 2GY