Guidance

How to bring a complaint to the Independent Case Examiner

Updated 6 March 2023

The Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) Office provides a complaint resolution and investigation service for people who are unhappy with the way their complaint has been dealt with.

When to contact us

Please do not contact us until you get a final response from the business you have complained to that says you can bring your complaint to us.

If you contact us before getting a final response from the business you have complained to, we won’t investigate your complaint.

You must contact us within 6 months of receiving the final response.

Complaints we can deal with

We can review complaints made by customers of:

• the Department for Work and Pensions, which includes:
  • the Child Support Agency
  • the Child Maintenance Service
  • Jobcentre Plus
  • the Pension Service
  • the Disability and Carers Service
  • Debt Management
• Northern Ireland Department for Communities - benefits, pensions and child maintenance only
• contracted DWP services (for example, those providing work programmes or health assessments)
• Pension Wise
• Pension Protection Fund

We can deal with complaints about maladministration or service failures, which include:

• failure to follow proper procedures
• excessive delays
• poor customer service

We cannot deal with complaints:

• about matters of law, for example benefit entitlement decisions
• that are, or have been, subject to legal proceedings
• about how any of the businesses fulfil their responsibilities as an employer
• that involve the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman or the Northern Ireland Ombudsman

How to contact us

When you contact us, please include the following information. This will help us to start looking into your complaint as quickly as possible.

You must let us know:

• your name and address
• your National Insurance number
• your phone number
• the facts of your complaint - please try to explain it simply and clearly
• how you want us to contact you
• if you need any adjustments to use our service, for example if you need information in large print

You must also send us a copy of the final response to your complaint from the business.

If the final response was by phone, you must tell us:

• the date of the phone call
• the name of the agency or business
• the name of the person who spoke to you
• a summary of what they said

If you change your address or phone number while we are dealing with your complaint, please let us know.

If you want us to return any documents you send us, please tell us when you send them. Any documents we need to send to you containing sensitive information, such as bank details or a National Insurance number, will have to be sent by post. This means you must provide us with a postal address.

The quickest and easiest way to contact us is by email, although you can contact us by phone or letter.

Email: [email protected]

The Independent Case Examiner

PO Box 209

Bootle

L20 7WA

Telephone: 0800 414 8529

NGT text relay – if you cannot hear or speak on the phone dial 18001 then 0800 414 8529

Choosing a representative

You can choose a representative to act on your behalf, if you want to. This can be anyone, for example a family member, advocate or solicitor.

You must give us written consent to discuss matters with your chosen representative.

What happens next

1. We will let you know if we can accept your complaint

We’ll contact you within 2 weeks of receiving your complaint to let you know if we can accept it. If we cannot accept it, we will let you know what to do next. If we accept your complaint, we’ll tell you what issues we can look at.

2. We try to reach an agreement between you and the business

After we accept your complaint, we will try to agree actions between you and the business to resolve your complaint.

If your complaint is resolved

We’ll write to you to confirm what action the business has agreed to take to resolve your complaint. We aim to do this within 8 weeks of accepting your complaint. We will monitor your case until the action has been completed.

If we are unable to resolve your complaint at this stage

If we are unable to resolve the complaint with your agreement, and on examination we consider the Business has taken appropriate action, we will send you a letter which explains our decision.

If we decide the complaint requires an investigation, we will ask the business for your case papers. Your complaint will then be allocated to an Investigator.

3. The complaint is allocated to an Investigator

The role of the Investigator is to examine the facts of your case. They may contact you to ask for information.

After reviewing the evidence, they may be able to agree actions between you and the business that satisfy you that your complaint has been settled.

If the Investigator settles your complaint

The Investigator will confirm the agreed action in writing and check that the business does what they’ve agreed to do. We aim to do this within 15 weeks of the case being allocated to an Investigator. We will only settle a complaint with your full agreement.

If the Investigator cannot settle your complaint

If the Investigator is unable to settle your complaint, they will report the detail of their investigation to the Independent Case Examiner.

4. The complaint is passed to the Independent Case Examiner

The Independent Case Examiner will reach a finding and consider what, if any recommendations to make to put matters right (for example an apology or corrective action). They will send you a report which tells you the outcome, timescales for any recommended actions, and what to do next.

We aim to complete our action in cases requiring a report from the Independent Case Examiner within 20 weeks of the complaint being allocated to an Investigator.

There are 3 possible outcomes from the Independent Case Examiner’s report:

• Upheld: If the Independent Case Examiner identifies maladministration that was not identified or dealt with before the complaint was escalated to the Independent Case Examiner’s office, the complaint will be upheld.

• Not upheld: If no maladministration is identified by the Independent Case Examiner, the complaint will not be upheld.

• Justified: If the Independent Case Examiner finds maladministration but is satisfied that the business put matters right before you brought your complaint to us, they will find the complaint to be justified.

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the Independent Case Examiner’s report

Please let us know within 3 months if:

• you are unhappy with the outcome, and

• you have new evidence that you think would materially affect it or which shows that it contained a factual error

We will consider this and review our findings if appropriate.

If you’re still unhappy with the outcome, or if you have no new evidence, you can ask your Member of Parliament to refer your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

Whilst we are dealing with your complaint

We may pass on any information you send us to the business you have complained about. If you need more information from them about your case, you must contact them yourself.

It is important that you remain engaged with the business while we are dealing with your complaint, as we do not become involved in the day-to-day running of your case.

If the need for your complaint is removed, for example if the business takes steps to put matters right, please let us know.

If you decide to take legal action against the business while your case is with us, please let us know as we may have to stop our action.

We know that people who have struggled to get their complaints resolved may be frustrated or anxious when they contact us. However, abusive, offensive or threatening behaviour may result in us changing the way we communicate with you. In extreme cases we may report it to the police or take legal action.

Complaints about the service we provide

We aim to provide the highest standards of service. However, if things go wrong, we will acknowledge and apologise for our mistakes. Please read our complaints procedure for more information.