complaints procedure DWP

spiff

As the original poster I guess I just would like to feel that someone will listen to me, I am very new to dealing with DWP and I'm shocked at the lack of professionalism I've experienced so far and as a Taxpayer feel I am entitled to demand better. Sixer and fluffmopvie, ....great posts

NASA_2

spiff wrote: »

As the original poster I guess I just would like to feel that someone will listen to me, I am very new to dealing with DWP and I'm shocked at the lack of professionalism I've experienced so far and as a Taxpayer feel I am entitled to demand better. Sixer and fluffmopvie, ....great posts

Why are you shocked though?

I'm not a DWP staff member but I am pretty sure that I have seen the kind of training that they get and it is absolutely woeful, often innacruate or misleading and generally not fit for purpose.

Your complaint might garner an apology but I doubt much more than that will happen. Taking the emotion of the situation 'Your wife sounds ok to me' isnt that bad a statement. My mother was treated for cancer recently and you really wouldnt have thought she had it at all. Doesnt change the fact that she did have it.

People on here hold public/civil servants to a higher standard than private sector employees but come see the crap systems/training that the private sector organise and you will understand why staff at the lowest level so often arent able to provide the expect level of service.

[Deleted User]

eskimo26 wrote: »

If they can't do the job satisfactorily because they can't hack the working environment they need to be fired or leave and find a less stressful job. That is the reality in the private sector and frankly that is how it should be.

Why should we be subjected to unprofessional conduct because of the stress they are being put through by their employer. I am not the cause their employer is! the only reason they get away with taking it out on me is because they can.

People like this would be crucified in the private sector, incompetence is bad enough but to be intentionally rude to a client because your job is stressful is obscene.

OP would recommend you keep your MP abreast of all developments in your complaint and make sure the job centre know you are doing so, see how fast they scurry about and start caring then.



If someone told me my cancer ridden wife 'sounds ok to me' i would settle for nothing less then getting them fired. But of course since it would never happen because of the lack of accountability i would at least persue it aggressively until i was satisfied that some disciplinary action in the form of unpaid training had occurred or a permanent marko on their file that would contribute to a 'x' strikes and your out policy. Either way i would hound my local MP's until something was put into place and if i exhausted that avenue it would be straight to the papers ( i record all conversations with government workers in the benefits sector), the complacency and lack of standards is as much down to knowing repercussions are none to minimal as much as it is to the other things you mentioned.

the OP said wife had cancer she NOT that she was cancer "ridden"..big difference,however if you would take pleasure in getting someone fired from a stressful job at a time of high unemployment i suppose its a case of whatever turns you on
btw your recording of such tele calls means diddly squat as you could never use such evidence anywhere
also bear in mind we dont know what the OPs attitude was during said phone call

[Deleted User]

spiff wrote: »

As the original poster I guess I just would like to feel that someone will listen to me, I am very new to dealing with DWP and I'm shocked at the lack of professionalism I've experienced so far and as a Taxpayer feel I am entitled to demand better. Sixer and fluffmopvie, ....great posts

being a tax payer has NOTHING to do with it at all,many non tax payers deal with the dwp on a regular basis and are treated well by them
just bear in mind what i said earlier that these people are over worked,badly trained and work in an extremely stressful enviroment.
just take a deep breath and avoid a heart attack,hopefully your next contact with the dwp will be positive

Katykat

Whilst I agree that lack of professionalism and common courtesy is not acceptable, can I just offer a few words of advice? As a retired public service employee (NHS) there was nothing more patronising than the words"I pay your wages". Every employed person pays taxes, including public sector workers, so for a private sector worker to refer to a DWP ( or NHS) employee as " my servant" immediately puts a slant on how the conversation may progress. I don't know if the OP actually called the DWP person "a servant" to their face, but he certainly said it in his post. Please everyone, no one is anyone's servant these days, in the context of the original meaning of the word.
OP, I hope your complaint is acted upon, I can assure you that there is a very vigorous complaints system in ALL public sector departments. The structure of these systems is usually far more robust than in the private sector, but please don't use patronising phrases to or about them

Uncertain

woodbine wrote: »

just bear in mind what i said earlier that these people are over worked,badly trained and work in an extremely stressful enviroment.

Why?

That is not in any way the OP's problem. He is entitled to be dealt with professionally. If he wasn't then the DWP's employee was not doing their job properly and should be taken to task.

The DWP's staff choose to work there and accept the terms and conditions that are offered. If they are not to their liking they can look for a job elsewhere just like anybody else.

Lady_strange

When I worked in a call center, I was on minimum wage, working for a private company, but on behalf of the government, as it was the switch over help scheme.

If anybody was rude to a customer, it was a disciplinary, team leaders always listened in on calls, and if anybody made a complaint, the call was listened too, to make sure we had done everything correctly. We also had diversity and equality training, to help us, help the clients better, and to understand their needs. The diversity and equality training took less than a day, and I think it is something that the dwp would benefit from implementing in their call centers.

NASA_2

Did they do any courses on how to use the english language?

They should especially focus on the spelling of 'Centre' as some people seem convinced that we are from the USA.

dmna

I myself am a fairly stressed and fed up DWP employee. However it's a mark of personal pride that I still try and do my best and am rarely anything but extremely polite and civil to a customer. Very occasionally you do have to spell out a few home truths (still in a polite way but things you might not normally say in customer service roles - I don't mean 'you are an !!!! sir' or such derivatives, but more 'yes sir, it is your responsibility to do this, and as you haven't, and continue to fail to do so, then we will continue to not pay you any money') but generally it's about trying to present things that aren't necessarily positive in a reasonable way.

That said, it is difficult to present yourself in a positive manner to someone when the last customer you spoke to, for example, threatened to break your arms and legs for something that you can do nothing about, all for around £15 grand per year (with a hiring freeze and ever more people wanting your services). However there is no excuse for abject rudeness - you don't necessarily have to be cheerful, but polite, always.

I know it's difficult to believe but 'computer says no' and 'rules are rules' are generally not just get out of jail free cards - some of the department's IT solutions are 20 years old and the regulations are obscure at best so quite often you can do nothing but wait for something to fix itself. For £15k you are not going to get individuals who know everything about everything about benefits either. The initial customer contact is generally a case of a little bit of knowledge and for anything more complex you get handed off to a subject matter expert who is generally snowed under.

So yes, on one hand I do agree - basic customer service skills are not too much to ask and anyone who is downright rude wants dealing with ASAP.

On the other, I think there is a real lack of understanding of the realities of what you may be expecting from DWP staff. The private sector generally doesn't have to cope with 20 year old computer systems, books of regulations that run into their thousands of pages, and a hiring freeze that takes no account of workload, as well as a portfolio of things to deal with that no one human short of Stephen Hawking could ever know in one go, coupled with a general expectation that you can do absolutely anything to deliver an 'entitlement' rather than a service you choose to use.

NASA_2

Excellent dmna - I've no doubt that the usual suspects will be back and will still keeping beating DWP staff with the metaphorical stick at every opportunity.

The point you make about the regulations is very true - there are hundreds of thousands of words about each and every benefit and it is simply impossible for any single individual to comprehend each and every part of it.

The computer systems are pretty awful. The older ones are to be expected but even some of the newer ones are riddled with problems and generally are not fit for the job they are supposed to be capable of carrying out. I've only briefly worked in the private sector, and it was in a call centre environment, and the systems then (A decade ago) were better than what is currently used in the public sector (And the systems are outsourced to the private sector).

It's always the fault of the person you are speaking too - even if they have no control over what is going on and are in an impossible position of trying to manage down expectations while not being given an absolute earful and generally treated with contempt. Repsect is a two way street and, personally, I do think it is ok to talk to a claimant in reasonably harsh tone where they themselves have gone beyond the minimum level of respect.