escalation routes for DLA

Can anyone advise me where to go with this?

I emailed a complaint on 15 August regarding failure of DLA to provide the information I had requested. I didn’t hear back from them, but we got a letter from DLA on 30 August with pretty much no information. I therefore wrote back to them once again requesting specific information. When I didn’t get a response, I emailed a complaint again on 28 October. DLA have now sent another letter with even less information that their first one. As I seem to be getting nowhere with the complaints department or DLA, can anyone suggest who can escalate this to?

Thanks

Have you framed it as a subject access request? I’ve always got a fairly speedy response from DWP when I’ve done that having needed them to send some information out (old Work Capability assessment reports or old DLA decisions/forms for instance). But in any event you could try contacting the DWP’s data protection officer and complaining that they’re failing to abide by their legal requirements in relation to SARs?

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/personal-information-charter#dpo

I was hoping to avoid the client having to complete a SAR but I think in this case, I’ll have no choice. Thank you.

CDV Adviser - 08 December 2022 12:38 PM

I was hoping to avoid the client having to complete a SAR but I think in this case, I’ll have no choice. Thank you.

There is a third-party form which you can fill in, have the client sign and then send to DWP yourself and have them post the documents back to you. Admittedly not as easy as if the DWP just did as you had requested but perhaps an option with a minimum of client effort?

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/request-your-personal-information-from-the-department-for-work-and-pensions#if-you-need-a-copy-of-any-other-information-that-dwp-holds-about-you