Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints to the Independent Complaints Commissioner are (a) allocated to a caseworker and (b) awaiting allocation to a caseworker as at 11 July 2019.

When the Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) office accepts a complaint for investigation, it will initially attempt to broker a solution between the complainant and the relevant business area or supplier, without having to request evidence to inform an investigation – this is known as “resolution”. If it’s not possible to resolve the complaint, the evidence will be requested and the case will await allocation to an Investigation Case Manager (ICM). The majority of complaints that are referred to ICE are complex and require a full investigation.

Complaint investigations are dealt with by dedicated teams and complaints are usually brought into investigation in strict date order. The time complaints wait to be allocated for investigation varies depending on the volume and complexity of cases on hand and the available investigative resource. Productivity within the ICE Office increased during the 2018-19 reporting year, with the Office clearing 1,246 complaints, compared to 955 during the 2017-18 reporting year.

As at 11 July 2019, there were 488 complaints under investigation (allocated to an ICM), and 1,377 complaints were awaiting allocation to an ICM.