The number of cases the Department for Work and Pensions' complaints watchdog has accepted for review has shot up by 83% in the last three years, the latest figures show.
The Independent Case Examiner’s Office – which reviews complaints about DWP and other government organisations that deal with benefits, work and financial support – also saw a 38% increase in the number of people coming to it with complaints about the department and its businesses in the same timeframe.
The independent complaints review service acts as an “impartial referee” for people who feel they have been treated unfairly and provides feedback to DWP on how to improve its services.
Members of the public must first go through the internal complaints procedure of the organisation they are complaining about before approaching the independent case examiner. Cases ICE did not take on include premature approaches and those it is “unable to accept”. The latter category includes cases that the reviewer deems to be justified, but where the organisation in question has taken all necessary actions to remedy matters before the complainant has approached ICE.
Overall, there were 23,748 complaints about DWP businesses in 2023-24.
ICE's annual report shows it was contacted by 5,808 people complaining about DWP businesses, up from 4,205 in 2020-21.
Of those 5,808 complaints, ICE cleared 2,648 in 2023-24 – just over half. This includes the 1,856 (17%) it accepted for review – up from 1,013 three years earlier – as well as 759 that were resolved; 325 that were settled; and 62 that were withdrawn.
Writing in the foreword to the annual report, independent case examiner Joanna Wallace described the 83% jump in cases accepted for examination in three years as “very significant”.
The complaints reviewer produced 1,502 investigation reports in 2023-24, as not all cases it accepts require a report. In just over half of cases – 762 – it upheld the complaint either partially or in full. In one case, ICE was unable to reach a finding, and the remainder of complaints were not upheld.
The biggest chunk of complaints ICE received (1,519) and investigated last year (731) were about DWP’s child maintenance group. The examiner produced 784 investigation reports stemming from complaints about child maintenance services, upholding the complaint partially or in full in 60% of cases.
The next-most complained about area was Universal Credit, with 817 people approaching ICE with a complaint, 517 of which it accepted for investigation.
ICE received a further 236 complaints about disability benefits, of which it accepted 158. There were 221 complaints about retirement services, of which ICE accepted 131; 188 complaints about other working-age benefits, with 146 accepted; 175 about contractual provision, with 101 accepted; and 99 about debt management; with 72 accepted.
Wallace noted that there has been "significant change in how DWP delivers services" over her 12-year tenure in the role to date. As such, she said the nature of the complaints she has received has also changed, "often apparently linked to the introduction of new benefits or maintenance schemes".
"It isn’t surprising that there may be more administrative errors in unfamiliar areas of work, both as unintended consequences of how new processes are designed, and staff being less experienced in using them. As such I see issues grow and then reduce again in my case load, as DWP iron out issues and act on the learnings they see and that my office share," she said.
ICE also reviews complaints about the Social Security Agency and Child Maintenance Service in Northern Ireland, which fall under the Department of Communities.
Separate figures published alongside those pertaining to DWP businesses show ICE received 11 complaints related to the DoC, of which it accepted two. Both were fully upheld.
'Significant changes' at ICE
Wallace used the annual report to thank the staff in her office, saying the ICE office team “are the best colleagues, and always provide the most fantastic support to me”.
“Their tenacity in establishing what should have happened, especially in complex cases, and assessing the impact for a customer of what happened instead, is the critical underpinning to any decision we make,” she said.
“This year the team have continued to make significant changes to the way they work to help speed up our ability to resolve things for the customers who come to ICE.”
Wallace noted that ICE has completed “more cases than ever before” as the flow of people approaching the office has continued to rise.
On average, cases that resulted in an ICE investigation report took 15.6 weeks to clear – well within the 20-week target time.
ICE met its 20-week target in 69% of cases. In the report, Wallace wrote that her office makes “every effort to meet the target, but delays may occur which are beyond our control, for example securing agreement to recommendations for redress”.
“We will not compromise the completeness of an investigation to meet the target,” she added.
The figures have improved significantly in recent years. In 2020, CSW reported that DWP was hiring new ICE office staff "as quickly as [it] can" after a minister admitted it had taken the reviewer more than a year to even begin investigating complaints it had decided to take on. Between January and June 2019, it took ICE 59 weeks on average from the time it accepted a complaint against the department to begin an investigation, and then a further 23 weeks to complete its investigation once the case had been assigned to a case manager – overshooting its 20-week target.
In the latest annual report, Wallace also thanked DWP staff "at all levels who this role leads me to work with".
"I am grateful for the attention paid to our feedback," she said.
A DWP spokesperson said “We support millions of people each year to get the help they need.
“We strive to provide a high standard of service and the number of complaints represent less than 1% of our customer base with only a small number of these requiring the independent case examiner.”