9th January, 2016
Good morning,
Our 30th July bulletin http://universalcreditadvice.com/housing-associations/2016/07/universal-credit—how-to-pursue-queries-complaints explained how you could raise queries and make complaints to DWP, concerning Universal Credit administration processes, where problems of delays or non-payment of Landlord Managed Payments (LMPs) or Third Party Payments (collectively known as APAs) occur. We continue to press DWP hierarchy to improve the processes and timescales for responses.
As a result, in the past few days I’ve been supplied with a list of the regional Complaint Resolution Teams to whom you should now address your complaints. I’ve been asked to advise you to put in the subject matter of your e-mail, the words “Formal Complaint” but nothing else. In the body of the e-mail you should provide all the details of the tenant, address, NINO, DOB etc. and a summary of your concerns and the issues to be addressed.
You’ll find your own Complaint Resolution Teams (CRTs) by examining the undernoted list:
SEG.OPERATIONSCORRESPONDENCETEAM1@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK – Southern England CRT (covering Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Sussex)
NORTHWEST.COMPLAINTSRESOLUTIONTEAM1@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK – North West CRT (covering Manchester, Liverpool, Cumbria and the lakes, Cheshire, Wirral)
SCOTLAND.COMPLAINTSRESOLUTIONTEAM1@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK – Scotland CRT
WALES.COMPLAINTSRESOLUTIONTEAM@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK – Wales CRT
CENTRALENGLAND.COMPLAINTSRESOLUTIONTEAM@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK – Central CRT (East Anglia, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Lincolnshire, Birmingham, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Northamptonshire)
NEE.CRTNORTH@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK – North East CRT (North) – (covering Durham, Tyne & Wear, Teesside, Northumbria)
NEE.CRTSOUTH@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK – North East CRT (South) – (covering Yorkshire & Humberside)
LHC.CRTTEAM1@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK – London and Home Counties CRT (covering Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Middlesex, Surrey, Berkshire)
On receipt of DWP’s response, if you remain unhappy or need further clarification you can escalate your complaint to stage 2, through:
Correspondence@dwp.gsi.gov.uk – a single address covering the whole of operations. This is effectively the Director General’s support staff you’re writing to.
DWP have given a commitment as follows:
“For both internal stages – resolution by CRT and Director General Review by the Complaints & Correspondence team, the turnaround is 15 working days. With review cases, if there’s further evidence and/or complexities they sometimes can take longer. The aim is to respond in full in 15 working days but we will not compromise the quality of our investigation just to meet the target. If it takes longer to resolve then so be it but the customer should be kept in the loop throughout. The customer comes first not the target. If, during the course of handling complaints from your members, they feel that has not happened, we would be grateful for their feedback so we can improve………………………………..All cases should have a paragraph at the end that explains the escalation process and how to contact them. In each step you are given 6 months from the date of the response to escalate.”
I hope this helps your understanding of the complaints process. If you need anything further, please e-mail bill@ucadvice.co.uk or phone 07733 080 389.
Bill Irvine
UC Advice & Advocacy Ltd
Phone 07733 080 389 or 1698 424301
Twitter – @Billirvine17