Complaint numbers, handling of complaints & errors in financial documents

[Name Removed] made this Freedom of Information request to Student Loans Company Limited This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was partially successful.

Dear Student Loans Company Limited,

I am requesting the following information under the FOI Act.

1) What is your complaints policy/ process?

2) What actions have you taken within the last three years to improve any aspects of your service?

3) When an email is received by your complaints department, the customer receives an email which states: "Your email has been directed to our Correspondence Department today and they will be in contact with you within 20 working days." When this does not happen, and your replies consistently exceed the time limit stated, do you make any attempt to resolve the complaint any more quickly? Do you have any specific policy that relates to this?

4) Can you give me your figures for complaints received in the years 2014-2018, including, if applicable, what further categorisations you use, such as complaints related to errors/ response times/ lack of information - etc.

5) How many financial documents - to include statements, summaries etc - have you issued to customers which have then been proved to have contained errors, in the years 2014-2018?

I will await your response.

Yours faithfully,

Katie

SLC FOI Requests - Do Not Reply, Student Loans Company Limited

This is an automated response to let you know that your email has been
received by the Student Loans Company Limited ("SLC").

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is only able to deal with requests for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA"). If your
email relates to a request for information under the FOIA, a separate
acknowledgement will be issued with a request reference.

If your email is in relation to a student finance application or account
enquiry, and you have provided sufficient details to identify your account,

your email will be passed to the relevant department. Alternatively,
please contact us using the contact details available at
https://www.slc.co.uk/contact.aspx.

If your email is not a customer enquiry then it has been passed to the
relevant department.

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is unable to advise response timescales

for other departments.

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Katie,

Thank you for your email dated 12 February 2019 requesting information
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Your request has been given reference 40-19.

Your request for information is considered to be invalid, as you have not
provided your full name, which is a requirement under section 8(1)(b) of
the FOIA.

Please refer to the Information Commissioner's guidance on "Recognising a
Request Made under the Freedom of Information Act (Section 8)", which can
be found at the following link:

https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...

If you wish your request for information to be progressed, please provide
your full name as is required by the FOIA.

The statutory timescales will not commence until you have provided your
full name making this a valid request in accordance with the FOIA.

Kind regards,
Lucia Spadaro

Lucia Spadaro| Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD

www.slc.co.uk
Follow us at Twitter/SLCcomms for the latest corporate news and updates

From: Katie <[FOI #551862 email]>
To: FOI requests at SLC <[SLC request email]>
Date: 12/02/2019 01:20
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Complaint numbers, handling of
complaints & errors in financial documents

Dear Student Loans Company Limited,

I am requesting the following information under the FOI Act.

1) What is your complaints policy/ process?

2) What actions have you taken within the last three years to improve any
aspects of your service?

3) When an email is received by your complaints department, the customer
receives an email which states: "Your email has been directed to our
Correspondence Department today and they will be in contact with you within
20 working days." When this does not happen, and your replies consistently
exceed the time limit stated, do you make any attempt to resolve the
complaint any more quickly? Do you have any specific policy that relates
to this?

4) Can you give me your figures for complaints received in the years
2014-2018, including, if applicable, what further categorisations you use,
such as complaints related to errors/ response times/ lack of information -
etc.

5) How many financial documents - to include statements, summaries etc -
have you issued to customers which have then been proved to have contained
errors, in the years 2014-2018?

I will await your response.

Yours faithfully,

Katie

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #551862 email]

Is [SLC request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Student Loans Company Limited? If so, please contact us using
this form:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

show quoted sections

Dear FOI Requests,

Name as below

Yours sincerely,

Katie Haddon

SLC FOI Requests - Do Not Reply, Student Loans Company Limited

This is an automated response to let you know that your email has been
received by the Student Loans Company Limited ("SLC").

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is only able to deal with requests for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA"). If your
email relates to a request for information under the FOIA, a separate
acknowledgement will be issued with a request reference.

If your email is in relation to a student finance application or account
enquiry, and you have provided sufficient details to identify your account,

your email will be passed to the relevant department. Alternatively,
please contact us using the contact details available at
https://www.slc.co.uk/contact.aspx.

If your email is not a customer enquiry then it has been passed to the
relevant department.

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is unable to advise response timescales

for other departments.

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Student Loans Company Limited

Dear Ms. Haddon,

After speaking with the relevant departments, it has been considered
necessary to seek clarification from you in order to provide an appropriate
response to your request.

In Question 2 of your request, are you referring solely to the Complaints
process or to Student Loans Company Limited (SLC) as a whole?

In Question 3 of your request, what do you mean by "do you make any attempt
to resolve the complaint any more quickly?"? In relation to this part of
your request, the automated email you are referring to would only be sent
out if the issue was considered by the relevant department not to be a
complaint. If it was considered a complaint, an acknowledgement email would
be sent out to the individual.

Please note that all statutory timescales are stopped upon seeking
clarification and will recommence when said clarification is received by
SLC.

Yours sincerely,
Lucia Spadaro

Lucia Spadaro| Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD

www.slc.co.uk
Follow us at Twitter/SLCcomms for the latest corporate news and updates

From: Katie <[FOI #551862 email]>
To: FOI requests at SLC <[SLC request email]>
Date: 12/02/2019 01:20
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Complaint numbers, handling of
complaints & errors in financial documents

Dear Student Loans Company Limited,

I am requesting the following information under the FOI Act.

1) What is your complaints policy/ process?

2) What actions have you taken within the last three years to improve any
aspects of your service?

3) When an email is received by your complaints department, the customer
receives an email which states: "Your email has been directed to our
Correspondence Department today and they will be in contact with you within
20 working days." When this does not happen, and your replies consistently
exceed the time limit stated, do you make any attempt to resolve the
complaint any more quickly? Do you have any specific policy that relates
to this?

4) Can you give me your figures for complaints received in the years
2014-2018, including, if applicable, what further categorisations you use,
such as complaints related to errors/ response times/ lack of information -
etc.

5) How many financial documents - to include statements, summaries etc -
have you issued to customers which have then been proved to have contained
errors, in the years 2014-2018?

I will await your response.

Yours faithfully,

Katie

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #551862 email]

Is [SLC request email] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Student Loans Company Limited? If so, please contact us using
this form:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi...

For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

show quoted sections

Dear FOI Requests at SLC,

I am responding to your request for clarification.

Regarding Qu. 2:-
I am asking for your complaints process or policy within the Student Loans Company.

Regarding Qu. 3:-
I must firstly correct you. You state: "...the automated email you are referring to would only be sent out if the issue was considered by the relevant department not to be a complaint." This is incorrect information. After emailing your specific email address for complaints, ([email address]) the automated response email received is: "Your email has been directed to our Correspondence Department today and they will be in contact with you within 20 working days."

In clarification, I would like to know whether, once a complaint has been received, there is any additional policy you follow - such as a shorter timeline for responding.

You have also raised a further question, which I would appreciate an answer to also:
Since what date has the complaints email address (as specified above) been in use by yourselves, and what is the policy of replying to complaints received via this address? Is this policy different to the replying of complaints received via your other email addresses?

Yours sincerely,

Katie

SLC FOI Requests - Do Not Reply, Student Loans Company Limited

This is an automated response to let you know that your email has been
received by the Student Loans Company Limited ("SLC").

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is only able to deal with requests for
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("FOIA"). If your
email relates to a request for information under the FOIA, a separate
acknowledgement will be issued with a request reference.

If your email is in relation to a student finance application or account
enquiry, and you have provided sufficient details to identify your account,

your email will be passed to the relevant department. Alternatively,
please contact us using the contact details available at
https://www.slc.co.uk/contact.aspx.

If your email is not a customer enquiry then it has been passed to the
relevant department.

SLC's Freedom of Information Office is unable to advise response timescales

for other departments.

show quoted sections

FOI Requests, Student Loans Company Limited

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Haddon
I refer to your recent email dated 12 February 2019 requesting the
following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”):
“I am requesting the following information under the FOI Act.

1) What is your complaints policy/ process?

2) What actions have you taken within the last three years to improve any
aspects of your service?

3) When an email is received by your complaints department, the customer
receives an email which states: "Your email has been directed to our
Correspondence Department today and they will be in contact with you
within 20 working days."  When this does not happen, and your replies
consistently exceed the time limit stated, do you make any attempt to
resolve the complaint any more quickly?  Do you have any specific policy
that relates to this?

4)  Can you give me your figures for complaints received in the years
2014-2018, including, if applicable, what further categorisations you use,
such as complaints related to errors/ response times/ lack of information
- etc.

5) How many financial documents - to include statements, summaries etc -
have you issued to customers which have then been proved to have contained
errors, in the years 2014-2018?”
Clarification of questions 2 and 3 was sought, with the following being
provided by way of clarification in your email of 13 February 2019:

“Regarding Qu. 2:-
I am asking for your complaints process or policy within the Student Loans
Company.”

“Regarding Qu. 3:-
[…..] You state: "...the automated email you are referring to would only
be sent out if the issue was considered by the relevant department not to
be a complaint."  This is incorrect information.  After emailing your
specific email address for complaints, ([email address]) the
automated response email received is: "Your email has been directed to our
Correspondence Department today and they will be in contact with you
within 20 working days."

In clarification, I would like to know whether, once a complaint has been
received, there is any additional policy you follow - such as a shorter
timeline for responding.

You have also raised a further question, which I would appreciate an
answer to also:
Since what date has the complaints email address (as specified above) been
in use by yourselves, and what is the policy of replying to complaints
received via this address?  Is this policy different to the replying of
complaints received via your other email addresses?”

Response
Question 1
Student Loans Company’s (“SLC”) complaints process is publicly available,
and while therefore technically exempt under section 21(1) of the FOIA,
this can be found at
[1]https://www.slc.co.uk/students-and-custo....
 

Question 2
Clarification of this question had been sought to establish if you were
referring to complaints only, or the whole of SLC.  The response provided
did not clarify this, rather made reference to the complaints
policy/process which you had requested under question 1.  As we are not
obliged to clarify further, in order to provide you with some level of
response to this question I would direct you to SLC’s Annual Reports for
the past 3 years which can be found at
[2]https://www.slc.co.uk/about-us/remit/ann... which outline
improvements made over the past 3 financial years at various points
throughout each document.

Question 3
To clarify, the auto-response that is issued by the
[3][email address] email address is as follows:

“This is an automated response to let you know we have received your
enquiry, and it has been passed to the relevant department. The following
link may help you for future contact.

[4]http://www.slc.co.uk/students-and-custom...

The Student Loans Company
Customer Relations Unit”

The “Sent By” indicator shows as “SLC Customer Complaints – NoReply”.

The text that you refer to is not an automated response, rather a standard
response issued by a member of the Customer Relations Unit (“CRU”) once an
email to the complaints email address has been considered to constitute
customer correspondence and not a complaint:

“Thank you for your recent email.

Your email has been directed to our Correspondence Department today and
they will be in contact with you within 20 working days.

Yours sincerely

The Student Loans Company
Customer Relations Unit”

The “Sent By” indicator shows the name of a member of staff within the
CRU.

There are no specific policies relating to where timescales for either
complaints or correspondence are not met.  In the event that confirmed
timescales (which are targets) are exceeded, attempts will be made to
ensure that responses are issued as soon as possible.  

Question 4
Complaints data is available on a financial year (“FY”) basis.  Complaints
data for financial years 2014-15 to 2016-17 is publicly available through
our FOI Disclosure Log, therefore while therefore technically exempt under
section 21(1) of the FOIA, this can be found at
 [5]https://www.slc.co.uk/freedom-of-informa...
under the responses to FOI requests 113-17 and 09-17.  

Please refer to the attached spreadsheet for FY 2017-18 complaints data.
 Acronyms used are confirmed in the second worksheet.

We would add that the based on a customer base of 8 million customers, the
level of complaints received by SLC is less than 0.2% of our customer
base.  Furthermore, out of the 12,792 complaints received in FY 2017-18
only 30% were accepted (complaints will be accepted if SLC has been at
fault) with 70% representing an issue based on factors outside SLC’s
control, for example interest rates, student finance policy or third party
error.  

Question 5
What is considered to constitute an error is subjective.  A statement
could be issued by SLC, based on current information received from HMRC,
and this would be considered correct from SLC’s perspective, however
possibly not from the customer’s perspective if they believe the
information to be incorrect.  Even if the definition of “proved to have
contained errors” was confirmed, this information is not recorded within
SLC.   Even if a definition was confirmed, and if this was established as
held by SLC, any data would be exempt from disclosure under section 12(1)
of the FOIA as the cost of complying with your request would exceed the
appropriate limit set out in the Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.  The limit
applying to SLC is £450 or 2.5 days (calculated to be 18 hours of staff
time at £25 per hour).

Question 6 (added in your email of 13 February 2019)
We are unable to confirm definitely the creation date of the customer
complaints email address, however can confirm that the routing record for
the email address within our mail system was created on 5 March 2004.

The policy of replying to complaints received via the complaints email
address is set out in the complaints process information referred to in
our response to question 1.  Any complaints received anywhere else in the
company would be forwarded to CRU to be registered and responded to, under
the same process as those received directly.

Internal review process

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the
right to ask for an internal review.

Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date
of receipt of the response to your original request and should be
addressed to the Freedom of Information Office, Student Loans Company
Limited, 100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, G2 7JD or by email:
[SLC request email].  
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision.  

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House  
Water Lane  
Wilmslow  
Cheshire  
SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Louise Chapman | Senior Legal Executive
Student Loans Company
100 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 7JD
e: 32080  t: 0141 306 2080

[6]www.slc.co.uk
Follow us at [7]Twitter/SLCcomms for the latest corporate news and updates

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. https://www.slc.co.uk/students-and-custo...
2. https://www.slc.co.uk/about-us/remit/ann...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.slc.co.uk/students-and-custom...
5. https://www.slc.co.uk/freedom-of-informa...
6. file:///tmp/www.slc.co.uk
7. file:///tmp/www.Twitter.com/SLCcomms