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<p>Individual departments have set up complaints procedures. That approach has not
changed under Labour 1997-2010 or successive governments. The DWP has a two tier complaints
process which considers formal complaints about our service<strong>. </strong>Once
a complainant has exhausted the DWP complaint process they are signposted to the Independent
Case Examiner’s Office if they are dissatisfied with the final response to their complaint.</p><p>The
Independent Case Examiner is independent, and discusses complaints. The Independent
Case Examiner is appointed under contract to adjudicate on escalated complaints about
the DWP, and its contracted service providers, in cases where the complainant has
exhausted the relevant internal complaints process and remains dissatisfied. If a
complainant is dissatisfied with the outcome of an I Independent Case Examiner investigation
(or the service provided by the Independent Case Examiner) they can ask their Member
of Parliament to escalate their complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman.</p><p>The table below provides details of the number of complaints concerning
the equalisation of women’s state pension age, that have been (a) received; (b) accepted
for investigation and (c) resolved by the Independent Case Examiner in each month
since January 2017 (we have interpreted (c) as a request for the number of concluded
complaint examinations).</p><p>At the end of October 2018, there were 865 such cases
awaiting a decision on whether the complaint could be accepted for investigation,
which explains the drop in the number of cases accepted for investigation since April
2018.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Month</p></td><td><p>Complaints received</p></td><td><p>Complaints
accepted for investigation</p></td><td><p>Concluded complaint examinations</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>January
2017</p></td><td><p>2</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>February
2017</p></td><td><p>26</p></td><td><p>5</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>March
2017</p></td><td><p>211</p></td><td><p>187</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>April
2017</p></td><td><p>172</p></td><td><p>157</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>May
2017</p></td><td><p>171</p></td><td><p>148</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>June
2017</p></td><td><p>144</p></td><td><p>124</p></td><td><p>1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>July
2017</p></td><td><p>222</p></td><td><p>185</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>August
2017</p></td><td><p>290</p></td><td><p>243</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>September
2017</p></td><td><p>297</p></td><td><p>232</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>October
2017</p></td><td><p>418</p></td><td><p>338</p></td><td><p>3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>November
2017</p></td><td><p>320</p></td><td><p>265</p></td><td><p>6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>December
2017</p></td><td><p>222</p></td><td><p>177</p></td><td><p>4</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>January
2018</p></td><td><p>314</p></td><td><p>254</p></td><td><p>11</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>February
2018</p></td><td><p>240</p></td><td><p>210</p></td><td><p>28</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>March
2018</p></td><td><p>171</p></td><td><p>132</p></td><td><p>16</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>April
2018</p></td><td><p>196</p></td><td><p>2</p></td><td><p>11</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>May
2018</p></td><td><p>159</p></td><td><p>2</p></td><td><p>15</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>June
2018</p></td><td><p>147</p></td><td><p>2</p></td><td><p>30</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>July
2018</p></td><td><p>131</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>13</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>August
2018</p></td><td><p>108</p></td><td><p>5</p></td><td><p>14</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>September
2018</p></td><td><p>101</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>15</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>October
2018</p></td><td><p>119</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>14</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
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