80% of DWP complaints unreported
By Jonathan Moore
Eighty percent of complaints made to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) go unreported, an influential committee of MPs has found.
An investigation by the public accounts committee also found that more than half of those who complained were dissatisfied with the response they received or the time it took to make it.
The most common cause of complaint was staff attitude and the committee said this may reflect “a feeling of powerlessness” among customers who feel they are poorly treated.
“Any service provider who doesn’t take complaints seriously and act on them is heading for trouble,” said committee chairman Edward Leigh.
“The number of customers who say they have complained is some five times the number recorded. It is not clear why this should be so.”
He said he was pleased the number of complaints made to the DWP had dropped by a third between 2003-4 and 2007-8.
However, the accuracy of this figure is unclear when the number of customers who say they have made a complaint is five times the number of complaints recorded by the DWP.
The committee suggested the enormous disparity between recorded complaints and those claimed by customers may be down to low-level complaints being resolved quickly and not recorded properly.
Mr Leigh also said an investigation would have to be launched into how many of these complaints were down to poor service and how many were based on the complainant not liking the answers they received from staff.
Another cause of concern was the high cost of calling agencies, especially with mobile phones, as customers were often kept on hold or passed between several members of staff.
The committee said an investigation had begun to discover why so many people are unhappy with the response they receive. And Mr Leigh suggested the DWP should compare its complaints procedure against the private sector and other public bodies in an effort to improve services.
