Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

571. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of complaints her Department has received under the customer service charter; if her attention has been drawn to problems in having complaints registered; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31611/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The number of complaints received by year under the Customer Charter can be found in Table 1. In reviewing the level of complaints, it is important to be mindful of the scale of the Department’s services, for example, in 2017, the Department processed over 1.7 million applications and received a total of 1,077 complaints.

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is committed to delivering high quality customer service. Our Customer Charter and Customer Action Plan 2016-2018sets out the commitments and standard of service that customers can expect in their dealings with the Department. Among them, customers should be served in a fair, courteous and timely manner, be informed of their rights and entitlements, be provided with full and clear information, and have their privacy respected.

Essentially, my Department aims to provide the best possible service at all times.

To that end, a dedicated Customer Service Unit receives and processes a wide range of feedback from customers relating to their interactions with my Department, including comments, compliments, and complaints. This helps to ensure that all formal customer comments and complaints are logged correctly and are responded to in a timely fashion.

Where a customer is dissatisfied with the standard of service that they have received, in the first instance, they are advised to convey their concerns to the staff member or section of the Department with which they have been dealing. Where the issue is not resolved to their satisfaction, customers can submit a formal complaint. They can do so in a number of different ways, such as by letter, by email, or online using a Customer Feedback Form , which can be accessed on my Department’s website at ).

Alternatively, customers can make contact by phone, or they can speak face to face to a member of staff in any of our Intreo centres around the country. All Department staff with computer access can log an official customer comment or complaint on the Department’s complaint management system.

Once a complaint is received, my Department seeks to issue an acknowledgement by letter or email within three working days, and a case reference number is also issued to the customer. The complaint is then forwarded to the Customer Service Officer(s) within the relevant business area(s) to be investigated and responded to within 15 working days, where practicable. If it is not possible to issue a response within that period of time, an interim response will issue, explaining why the 15 day time frame cannot be met and providing details of an expected response date. All complaints will be dealt with promptly, fairly and impartially, and the outcome of the investigation will be reflected in the final response to the customer.

Customers are advised that if they are unhappy with the outcome of the investigation, they can request to have their complaint reviewed by another officer who was not involved in dealing with the original complaint, explaining why they are not satisfied with the initial response. If a review is to be conducted, a response is to be provided to the customer within 20 working days. Customers are also advised that if, after review, they are still unhappy with the outcome, they can contact the Office of the Ombudsman to seek to have the matter examined by that Office.

An average of between 90 and 95 complaints a month have been lodged using the Customer Comments, Compliments and Complaints app since 2016.

Overall, in its efforts to deliver the highest possible standard of customer service, my Department aims to provide its customers with a complaints procedure that is accessible, efficient, effective, standardised and fair. There are, as detailed above, a number of routes available to customer who wishes to make an official complaint to my Department.

While we never wish to hear that poor customer service experience has occurred, we greatly appreciate customers who take the time to engage with us and provide feedback. This enables the Department to review or change processes where required, to learn from our customers and to work to continually improve our overall level of customer service and satisfaction.

Table 1