Email address for Job Centre Plus complaints Department please.

Hi

Does anybody happen to have the email address for the complaints department at Job Centre Plus/DWP please?

I have googled until I am blue in the face but keep ending up at the same place, without an email address!!

I want to complain on my daughters behalf with regard to the way she has been treated/spoken to during the whole process of trying to claim benefit. It seems to me that because she is only 19, she is being treated as if she is an imbecile and made to go round in circles, getting nowhere fast.:confused: .

Thank god she has only had cause to have dealings with this service for the past 6 weeks or so, and thank god even more that she has a job to start in 3 weeks, I don't think we could have coped with any more condescending people, acting as if they were giving her their own money out of their own pocket. I appreciate that there must be many nice and decent people working for the service, but unfortunately, over the past 2 weeks we have both spoken to around 5 different people, and out of these 5, I can honestly say only 1 gentleman managed to speak in a civil manner and tried to help her. I understand that all these calls are recorded; I sincerely hope the one where my daughter, when enquiring as to when she was likely to receive any money was asked "well what do you expect me to do about it??", still exists.

I can feel my blood starting to boil again, so will leave my rant for now.

Thanks, Carol.
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Comments

  • chickmug
    chickmug Posts: 3,279 Forumite
    Sorry I can't help with an email address but why not record them when you call and then why not go and see your MP so you can play the calls to him/her?

    Good luck though!
    A retired senior partner, in own agency, with 40 years experience in property sales & new build. In latter part of career specialising in commercial - mostly business sales.
  • barnabee
    barnabee Posts: 1,210
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    There is a formal complaints procedure. The details are listed here, giving several options. You can also download the leaflet here.

    Good luck
  • cazziej
    cazziej Posts: 321
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    Thanks Chickmug and Barnabee for your help.

    Best wishes

    Carol
  • glossgal
    glossgal Posts: 438 Forumite
    complaining on behalf of your adult daughter is quite condescending in itself isn't it? Apologies if she has special needs or a disability but if not she should be making her own complaints!

    I agree that standards at DWP have slipped and can well believe you got shoddy service. BUT i also know from experience that people can be unreasonable where benefits are concerned. I'm not trying to be arguementative here but if your daughter caused someone to actually say "what do you expect me to do about it" then I'm inclined to think she wasn't being sweetness and light herself?

    Anyway, i would write to the contact centre for local area and address it to the dept team leader of whatever benefit she was claiming.
    "I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself" -Oscar Wilde
  • alison999
    alison999 Posts: 1,769 Forumite
    glossgal wrote: »
    complaining on behalf of your adult daughter is quite condescending in itself isn't it? Apologies if she has special needs or a disability but if not she should be making her own complaints!

    I agree that standards at DWP have slipped and can well believe you got shoddy service. BUT i also know from experience that people can be unreasonable where benefits are concerned. I'm not trying to be arguementative here but if your daughter caused someone to actually say "what do you expect me to do about it" then I'm inclined to think she wasn't being sweetness and light herself?

    Anyway, i would write to the contact centre for local area and address it to the dept team leader of whatever benefit she was claiming.

    i agree. i think they will have a lot more respect for her if she complains herself. shes a adult and needs to be treated as such. you can still help her though, it doesnt mean she has to go it alone.
  • cazziej
    cazziej Posts: 321
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    Alison999 and Glossgal - this is what I love about this site, you come on and ask for information (departing a little information regarding the problem on the way) and it becomes a free for all for people wanting to have a little dig and telling you what you should and shouldn't do, how you should behave etc.

    If I want to make a complaint and my daughter is happy for me to do so - which she is - so be it, I was not asking for permission from anybody on here, merely an email address!!

    She does not have special needs. However, she is not quite as vocal as me and obviously does not have as much life experience; when I was her age I would not have felt able to make a complaint to anybody seen to be "in authority". As my daughter commented, she is lucky that she has me to help her try and sort things out and to guide her. If she had been alone in this matter, after all the trouble she has had, she would have given up. I suspect that there are many teenagers out there without support who find it difficult in similar situations.

    I appreciate you are not trying to be argumentative, but with regard to my daughter perhaps saying something to "cause" somebody to say "what do you expect me to do about it", I would expect somebody working in such a department to behave and speak in a professional manner, and this response was given to my daughter when informing them that she had not had any money for in excess of 3 weeks!

    I am under no illusion that my daughter is all sweetness and light - far from it at times, typical to most teenage girls, but I was in the room when she had the conversation and at all times she was polite, I would not expect anything less of her. In any case, if the recording of the conversation still exists, this will be proved.

    Glossgal, if I were to complain on my daughters behalf without informing her and obtaining her consent, then I agree, this would be condescending and I would never presume to do this, but as I have her full agreement, I fail to see that this can be condescending.



    Thanks anyway for your replies.

    Carol
  • alison999
    alison999 Posts: 1,769 Forumite
    cazziej wrote: »
    Alison999 and Glossgal - this is what I love about this site, you come on and ask for information (departing a little information regarding the problem on the way) and it becomes a free for all for people wanting to have a little dig and telling you what you should and shouldn't do, how you should behave etc.

    i wasnt saying how you should/shouldn't behave. but i know at my work, a complaint would be taken more seriously if it came direct from the person involved. we were only trying to help, despite what you may think. just b/c you dont like the answers doesn't mean that we are having a dig.
  • cazziej
    cazziej Posts: 321
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    alison999 wrote: »
    i wasnt saying how you should/shouldn't behave. but i know at my work, a complaint would be taken more seriously if it came direct from the person involved. we were only trying to help, despite what you may think. just b/c you dont like the answers doesn't mean that we are having a dig.

    Alison, as far as I am concerned, if a complaint is valid, and is made with the complainants consent, it SHOULD be taken seriously. Do you pick and choose the different levels of "seriousness" with which to treat a complaint?

    And it is not that I don't like the answers, it is just that they were answers to questions I didn't ask!! :confused:

    I DID ask for a email address, and I was given good advice and information, I liked these answers very much and was very grateful!!

    Anyway, goodnight.

    Carol
  • alison999
    alison999 Posts: 1,769 Forumite
    cazziej wrote: »
    Alison, as far as I am concerned, if a complaint is valid, and is made with the complainants consent, it SHOULD be taken seriously. Do you pick and choose the different levels of "seriousness" with which to treat a complaint?

    And it is not that I don't like the answers, it is just that they were answers to questions I didn't ask!! :confused:

    I DID ask for a email address, and I was given good advice and information, I liked these answers very much and was very grateful!!

    Anyway, goodnight.

    Carol

    That might be the only question you asked but you posted much more than that, and i think it would be quite naive to expect other posters not to comment on that. also, i dont deal with complaints where i work (thank god!) but she is 19 and a adult. i dont see the problem with you writing the letter and her signing it etc. I think its good that youre supporting your daughter, but guiding her is one thin, it doesnt mean you have to do it for her. but there i go again, telling you how to behave tut tut :confused:
  • dmg24
    dmg24 Posts: 33,925 Forumite
    The DWP will not speak with you about your daughter's claim without her express permission.

    I agree with the other posters, your daughter is old enough to vote, have a family, have a mortgage. Would you be complaining on her behalf if she had a problem with one of them?
    Gone ... or have I?
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