Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in what circumstances her Department refers universal credit claimants to contact their Member of Parliament.

Information is available via Gov.uk regarding the Department’s complaints procedure and what steps people can take if at any stage they disagree with the response they have received from the Department.

If after following the Department’s complaints procedure a claimant remains unsatisfied with the Departments final response, they can ask the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) to review the Departments handling of the complaint.

If the claimant is unhappy with the response they receive from ICE we would then advise the claimant to contact their Member of Parliament (MP) to request the complaint is sent to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman for further review.

In addition, the Department will respond to all complaints regarding current Policy/Legislation providing a full explanation of the Policy and how it is applied. However, if the claimant disagrees with the actual Policy/Legislation rather than its application they may be advised to contact their local MP to raise their concerns.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

Prior to the roll-out of Universal Credit Full Service in their constituency, both Ministers and Service Leaders (formally District managers) wrote to each Hon. Member. The letter explained the implicit consent arrangements for MPs and also provided the telephone number and email address of the Service Leader in the constituency, so that MPs can contact Service Leaders if there are urgent constituent cases that need attention. This is the best route to raise issues on behalf of constituents and works well because MPs’ offices can establish local relationships.

We have recently written to hon. Members to confirm named contacts and local telephone numbers to allow local constituency related Universal Credit cases to be raised directly. The letters also extend an invitation for MPs to visit their local Jobcentre to see the work they are doing.