DWP Complaints

Hi Dave,

As the ESA cases are administrative matters rather than decisions in law that can be appealed, you may wish to investigate undertaking Judicial Review proceedings in the High Court. If they are good enough cases i.e. the DWP behaviour is egregious and not capable of being defended, it is often settled after the issue of the Pre-Action Protocol letter.

I would suggest contacting CPAG Judicial Review Project. You will find them very helpful (I always have). Their web pages have template letters that you may be able to adjust to fit your client’s circumstances.

Your other alternative is to refer the clients to pursue complaints via their MP. DWP tend to respond very quickly to MP enquiries. You can find their contact details on They Work For You website.

I hope that this helps.

Regards

Chris

I have had a number of issues with regards to the DWP complaints process. They never meet their deadline to respond, if they respond at all.
I have taken the cases to the local MP’s office and have stated that if they can’t get a response then the only course of action is Judicial Review.
I would recommended going to the MP’s office as this is the only time I have had responses.

Thank you both, I was intending to contact the MP but had not thought about Judicial Review and agree, CPAG’s Service is excellent, so will also consider that.
Dave

Dave Feast - 23 February 2023 09:59 AM

Thank you both, I was intending to contact the MP but had not thought about Judicial Review and agree, CPAG’s Service is excellent, so will also consider that.
Dave

They’re even ignoring the MP in one case of mine. I am very tempted to think about JRing them but I’ve been struggling for resource just recently.

CPAG were in contact with PHSO last year and they provided a guide including PHSO’s ability to consider some cases where DWP have not responded to a complaint (thereby frustrating taking it further). I have emailed PHSO today to ask if it is ok to share this and will post here if it is.

I’m glad to hear the JR project has been useful, please do keep getting in touch :-)

CPAG now have permission to share ombudsman guidance on ‘what happens when a complaint comes to PHSO’, of particular relevance ‘Has the complaint been through the organisation’s own complaints process already?’

“Overall, PHSO would need to see that the organisation to be aware of the complaint and have the opportunity to formally respond/resolve the cases. 

PHSO has discretion to look at a case if local process has not been used or exhausted if:

- PHSO believes it was not reasonable to expect the complainant to do so;
- PHSO is satisfied that the local process has come to an end; or
- There is an exceptional reason (see right)

For UKCG complaints, this would include any independent tier stages the organisation has in place. 

PHSO may look at whether there are exceptional circumstances.  These could cover (but are not limited to) the following:

- Complainant is suffering particular difficulties that may be linked to the issue in question (e.g. extreme hardship)
- There is a time specific issue (e.g. terminal illness);
- It is clear the relationship between complainant and organisation has broken down completely. 

Other factors
PHSO may also decide to use its discretion to look further at a case if:

- The case relates to an issue PHSO considers could relate to a wider/systemic issue and where PHSO believes its work could add value for a larger group of people; and/or
- The issues raise significant or serious issues.”

Note, the complaint needs to come via the complainant’s MP and there is a strict Parliamentary protocol which prevents MP’s from acting for other MPs’ constituents, however if the relevant local MP is unhelpful, it may be possible to secure the assistance of another friendly MP to refer on to the local MP with the complaint form and a request for a PHSO referral, if not to make the referral directly. PHSO may also be interested to hear of difficulties in the referral process and CPAG would be happy to pass details on (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).

Lack of response to legitimate queries is now becoming a major issue, the worst culprits being UC, Pension Service and LA Revenues and Benefits Unit.

I currently have no less than 4 ongoing complaints/queries involving the above. In two cases, delays in processing Pension Credit claims (lodged June 2022 and August 2022-neither claim decided yet) have resulted in severe hardship for the customers involved. PS response to our enquiries, complaints= zero response whatever.) I also have 2 questionable Housing Ben overpayments (Sept 2022 and Jan 2023) which I have asked for reviews on yet have received zero response (both submitted by email, with receipts to show they arrived). Finally we have a dispute with UC over their decision (erroneous) that my client was working full time for a 4 week period in April 2022 (Cl has severe learning difficulties and behavioural issues and is not capable of work), resulting in the loss of that month’s UC payment. UC told us in June 2022 that they were “seeking further advice” on that one. We have heard nothing since, despite regular reminders on the Client’s journal.

It seems the general policy is now merely “ignore it and hope it goes away”.

I’m happy to raise the issue of poor complaint handling via the stakeholder forum too - if any of you have some examples you can send me - attempts to complain, chase and DWP response or lack of etc - that would be really helpful.

You can either DM them or send to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Thanks

Just escalating a case to an MP.

UC - late MR. No response.
Debt Management - complaint. No response.
UC - request for waiver referral form. No response.
Complaint - about the failure to respond to all of the above and, er, no response.

Thanks Mike - could you let me have approximate dates for when the complaints went in too?

Hi Daphne,

That’s easy given that I’ve just compiled a summary for the MP.

UC - late MR. No response. Submitted July 2022.
Debt Management - complaint. No response. July 2022.
UC - request for waiver referral form. No response. July 2022.
Complaint - about the failure to respond to all of the above and, er, no response. October 2022.

Daphne, I have sent two complaints, one in September to the interventions team in Ramsgate, and one to Pension Credit in January and got no response whatsoever from either of them. DWP just don’t seem to come back to reps at all. In previous instances DWP replied directly to the client who just simply did not understand the response, which was the reason an authority to act was completed in the first place.

I’d have settled for a response to the client. At least it’s a response.

Thanks all - i’m going to send email via stakeholder forum and will post any response here - if anyone has other examples happy to take them too

We escalated the following via our MP July 2022 - client submitted a NS ESA claim early 2018, DWP lost it. He chases what happened from 2018 to 2021 nothing. Even though there is proof of the date and exact time jobcentre received form on the Shadow UC Journal.

He comes to us regarding help with WCA supersession.

So in our wide eyed naivety / nativity we thought it can’t be that hard for regional customer services to sort it out can it?

The first reply to our MP implied well it was a long time ago, its no biggy cos he gets UC regarding money, bit of a inconvenience. 

We persisted again and again and again. The last communication insisted that client would generate an overpayment of £30,000 ish because they cannot offset against UC paid.

We have argued ad nauseam that arrears of NS ESA may be offset against UC already paid by the Department of Work & Pensions on the following legislative basis - Reg 11 the Social Security (Overpayments and Recovery) Regulations 2013. Failure to do so would amount to an avoidable overpayment i.e. official error / maladministration/ loss to the exchequer.

We have been giving a running commentary to CPAG’s EWS.

Ps thanks for the group therapy!!!