complaints procedure DWP

I have found that in my dealings with these people, they have no accountability, with one member of ESA staff informing my partner that there will soon be a cure for arthritis. I know from my experience of working in customer service, if I ever spoke to a client half as bad as the DWP staff do, I would instantly be fired, and I was dealing with the elderly and disabled on a daily basis in my role. I only expect to be treated how I would deal with clients, guess my standards are higher than those of the dwp.

spiff wrote: »

I had the misfortune to speak to Jobcentre plus concerning my wife's claim for ESA ( I had their, and her consent to do so) I found them rude (and I quote "your wife sounds ok to me"), negative, and extremely patronising and so asked to speak to a team leader which I did to register my dissatisfaction with their level of service and adherence to their own Customer charter. I have formally registered a complaint with them whcih they will respond to in 10 days. I would like to know if anyone else has done anything similar. I have managed myself in customer facing financial services for over 20 yrs and their lack of people and complaint handling skills left me speechless. I have no confidence that my complaint will be responded to but I'm willing to be lead by anyone else's experiences. These people are servants of the public and as such should be called to task when they fail to deliver. My wife and I are both taxpayers for over 30 yrs and have never claimed a penny in benefit prior to my wife's illness and this experience leaves me very upset.

I've not experienced rudeness with DWP staff regarding ESA. I've certainly experienced maladminstration as many do.. and over a year ago when I was engaging my WCA I couldn't get simple information by telephoning them.. like what to do with supporting medical evidence.

Unfortunately I agree with you and some sentiment above. If the admin regarding ESA applied in a private organisation I would imagine the Human Resources department would be like Heathrow airport on a busy day. There seems to be a 'we have a terrible computerised system and there's nothing we can do about it' attitude... or a 'I'm not part of this.. I just act as a go between'. When I have rung to register my anger at something like being sent a letter regarding failing my WCA (which I hadn't had) they just laughed and said it wasn't anything to worry about... it was just an error... I've never worked for an organisation where that would have been the response. Unfortunately the people you typically get to speak to probably do have little option to do anything other than try to get by... morale probably is low... and complaining to organisations like this probably has zero real effect or effect that takes so long to implement you'll be dead by the time it happens. But unfortunately complaining is all you do in the hope that someone does something about it. Last private firm I worked for staff were hauled into the CEO's office if a computer report said they'd failed to address a complaint satisfactorily within a reasonable time. A second such report and might as well have a tear off P45 because that was what was coming unless you'd had a recent brain operation.

Ironically as I quickly scan the other threads it seems someone else wants to complain about DWP regarding ESA customer service. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3476113

unfortunately most people dealing with public have been threatened or abused, its the nice people that suffer for it, no excuse but when voices are raised in anger peeps that deal with public shut off, no excuse for bad service tho.