Recommendation 17

Despite child maintenance having the highest rate of complaints within the Department, the Department upholds a lower proportion of complaints relating to child 21 Qq 124–125; C&AG’s Report, paras 5, 1.14, 3.10 22 C&AG’s Report, para 3.11 and 3.12 23 Q 125 24 C&AG’s Report, Figure 18, para 3.18 25 C&AG’s Report, paras 3.6 and 3.7 26 Qq 121, 128–129 16 Child Maintenance maintenance (around 1 in 3) than it does for its other service areas.27 It told us that one reason for this is that child maintenance “is an area where people are more likely to complain because of the nature of the situation” and that “people are more likely to complain, because you have two customers”.28 If a customer does not agree with the Department’s decision not to uphold a complaint, they can complain to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE). In 2020–21, CMG accounted for 43% of all complaints investigated and upheld (or partially upheld) by ICE (208 of 484). This was more than for all working-age benefits combined (189), and almost three times those relating specifically to Universal Credit (73).29 Given the high volume of complaints, we asked the Department whether it was satisfied that its complaints procedure was getting things right and that customers were being fairly treated. It told us that it was “very happy” with the way that it handled complaints, and was “absolutely confident” in the way complaints were handled. It recognised, however, that the rate of upheld complaints was higher than for any of its other services and said that it was not complacent and would be working to improve this.30 Supporting survivors and victims of domestic abuse and coercive control