Multiple complaints about the DWP

The request was refused by Department for Work and Pensions.

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

I'm enquiring as to how the DWP log complaints if there is more than one complaint being made. Is it by the communication made stating the issue(s) or by the failed attempted resolution by the DWP of the issue in response to the complaint(s)? And is there a way of identifying how many complaint(s) have multiple points that need addressing?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

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[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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no-reply@dwp.ecase.co.uk on behalf of DWP Central FOI Team, Department for Work and Pensions

Our ref: FOI2020/18769

Contact email: [1][email address]

Dear Mark Abraham,

Thank you for your request for information which was received on 16th
April. Your request is being considered under the terms of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

You can normally expect a response to your FoI request within 20 working
days. However due to the current situation with COVID-19 it may not be
possible for us to reply to you within this timeframe.

The DWP will make every effort to respond to FOIs as we would usually but
the current situation may mean that available Departmental resources are
needed on other high priority areas.

We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecede nted situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact the department
using the email address and reference number above.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Department for Work and Pensions

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Dear [email address] on behalf of DWP Central FOI Team,

Thanks for response explaining the delay in responding. I do need a response, and a timescale for the response, as my enquiry relates to a deadline set by yourselves, the DWP. This means I need your response by the 3rd June 2020. If you can't meet that specific deadline can you let me know please?

Yours sincerely,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
we cannot guarantee a response within this timescale.
 
Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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Operations FOI Requests, Department for Work and Pensions

 

 

Mark Abraham,

 

It is unlikely that you will receive  a response by 3 June, as staff
working on FOI responses are needed on other high priority areas.

 

 

Thank you

 

 

 

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Dear Operations FOI Requests,

Thank you for responding to confirm a reply by the 3rd June is unlikely, I'm grateful for the swift response in the circumstances.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Abraham

Operations FOI Requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect a response within 20 working days.
  
For further information on making Freedom of Information requests please click on the link below.

https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-inf...

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Operations FOI Team,

1 Attachment

Dear Mark Abraham,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 16
April.

Your response is attached

Yours sincerely,

DWP Operations FOI Team

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions's handling of my FOI request 'Multiple complaints about the DWP'.

Thanks for your response.

I'd be grateful to know if the decision to treat multiple complaints as just one complaint was devised before or after the National Audit Office report on complaints in 2008. For ease of reference, the page link is currently:
https://www.nao.org.uk/report/department...

ISBN: 9780102954289

What you seem to be suggesting from your response is a decision has been made to treat each contact with the DWP as one complaint. Thus is no likelihood of an accurate measure of how many parts of any communication to the DWP are complaints, arising are being made individually. Therefore by this method, the DWP will certainly "... miss early warnings of poor service, systematic errors, or problems with their processes."

I'd like a review to confirm what your suggesting to the complainant here as I understand it, i.e.:
the complainant that they should contact the DWP separately, on each and every occasion to accurately record statistics, if they would like to have accurate statistics recorded, to properly ensure each complaints made is recorded.

I would also like to limit my request under FOI to one area, in order to meet to come as you say, within the "appropriate limit for central Government, set by regulations at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3½ working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting it."

This could easily be done by tracking the 'complaints' made by myself to the DWP in the period September 2018 to June 2020. This would be by phone, in person, via the complaints online procedure, and by UC journal, and post and email. I'm aware there's a debatable question of whether contact should be regarded as a complaint, or an 'expression of dissatisfaction'. Even so, I'm interested in getting the statistics on this review request please.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
we cannot guarantee a response within this timescale.
 
Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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References

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1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.gov.uk/dwp

DWP Central FOI Team,

Dear Mark Abraham,

Our Ref: IR2020/29377

Contact email: [1][DWP request email]

Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FoI) review request.

You can normally expect a response to your FoI review request within 20
working days. However due to the current situation with COVID-19 it may
not be possible for us to reply to you within this timeframe.

The DWP will make every effort to respond to FoI reviews as we would
usually but the current situation may mean that available Departmental
resources are needed on other high priority areas.

We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact the department
using the email address and reference number above.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Department for Work and Pensions

References

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Operations FOI Team,

1 Attachment

Dear Mark Abraham,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 15
June.

Your response is attached

Yours sincerely,

DWP Operations FOI Team

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Thank you very much indeed for the very helpful clarification. I am very much obliged to you, and from what you say request final clarification please.

Your reply is very clear, but it raises the question in turn in practice not actually followed, by the teams " actually there, if you like, "at the coal-face".

Should we expect FOI guidance to be followed zealously, as in theory it's the ideal, or recognise that actually in practice, it's something that could vary in extenuating circumstances that you might not about. with good reason.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
we cannot guarantee a response within this timescale.
 
Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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Operations FOI Requests, Department for Work and Pensions

Dear Mark Abraham

In respect of your further comments about your recent Freedom of Information request we have reviewed our response. We are satisfied that the information provided in that response is correct and there is nothing further we can add.

You have not made a further request for recorded information in your e-mail below.

Yours sincerely,

Service Delivery FOI Team

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Dear Operations FOI Requests,

Thank you for your response. I apologise, I hadn't phrased my response sufficiently clearly. I'll ask again for clarification of what you have said - as it's very interesting indeed, and from it may lay another latent question for information, that I expected, to be implicitly understood, by the quality of the previous reply.

I do apologise again. I'll repeat the request, and clarify the reasoning. I hope doing so might help better explain my request for further detailed information here.

Thank you very much indeed for the very helpful clarification. I am very much obliged to you, and from what you say request final clarification please.

I said "Your reply... raises the question [brings to mind] in turn... whether in actual fact this practice of the complaints or issues raised are actually followed, by the teams "actually there, if you like, "at the coal-face".

What I'm asking if there's available information verifying the success rate of the intentions here. It sounds fine to distinguish between multiple issues raised and multiple complaints made, but I had to take time to understand the difference, and suspect it's a level of logic difficult to grasp initially. If that's the case I'm suggesting it have been recorded somewhere that the information asked for isn't consistently being answered, by certain regions, or as a whole. So I am seeking information, that you, with your desire "to be helpful" would have sensed, and offered unbidden.

So I'm asking for information showing what action has been taken to check your statistics. That I think hasn't been answered and may in some way be available. I hope you may be able to help.

And I'd like to thank you again for a very interesting response. I was fascinated!

Yours sincerely,

Mark Abraham

Operations FOI Requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has been accepted by the DWP FoI mailbox.
 
By the next working day your request will be forwarded to the relevant information owner within the Department who will respond to you direct. 
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect a response within 20 working days.
  
For further information on making Freedom of Information requests please click on the link below.

https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-inf...

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Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Work and Pensions' handling of my FOI request 'Multiple complaints about the DWP'.

I haven't received a response to my last request for clarification. I hope I made the distinction clear enough to gain the clarification, as I believe the information in your previous reply didn't answer the point I attempted to clarify for you also. If someone can respond, I'd be obliged.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/m...

Yours faithfully,

Mark Abraham

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
we cannot guarantee a response within this timescale.
 
Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

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References

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1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.gov.uk/dwp

Operations FOI Team,

Dear Mr Abraham,

Our Ref: IR2020/51212

Contact email: [1][DWP request email]

Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FoI) review request.

You can normally expect a response to your FoI review request within 20
working days. However due to the current situation with COVID-19 it may
not be possible for us to reply to you within this timeframe.

The DWP will make every effort to respond to FoI reviews as we would
usually but the current situation may mean that available Departmental
resources are needed on other high priority areas.

We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact the department
using the email address and reference number above.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Department for Work and Pensions

References

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DWP Central FOI Team,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Abraham,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 22nd
July.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

DWP Central FOI Team,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Abraham,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 8th
September.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team