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<p>Individual government departments have long established complaints procedures.
That approach has not changed under Labour governments 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. The Independent Case Examiner is independent.</p><p>The
table below provides information on the method by which complaints submitted to the
Independent Case Examiner’s (ICE) Office, concerning changes to women’s State Pension
age, were closed.</p><p><ins class="ministerial"></ins></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><ins
class="ministerial">Reason for complaint closure</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Number</ins>
<ins class="ministerial"> </ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">(a)
Resolved (we have interpreted this as meaning closed following issue of an ICE investigation
report)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">192</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins
class="ministerial">(b) Rejected (the complaint failed to meet the ICE acceptance
criteria)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">1,598</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins
class="ministerial">(c) Paused for other reasons (includes withdrawn complaints and
those closed following a High Court decision to grant permission for a Judicial Review
of the Departments handling of the change to women’s State Pension age – it is not
within the ICE remit to consider issues which are, or have been, subject to legal
proceedings.)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">2,506</ins></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><ins
class="ministerial"><strong> </strong></ins></p><p><ins class="ministerial">The Independent
Case Examiner’s Office received the first complaints from women relating to changes
in their state pension age in October 2016. The table below provides details of the
numbers received in each of the past three reporting years.</ins></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><ins
class="ministerial">Year (April to March)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">Number
received</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">2016/2017</ins></p></td><td><p><ins
class="ministerial">243</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">2017/2018</ins></p></td><td><p><ins
class="ministerial">2981</ins></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><ins class="ministerial">2018/2019
(to 13 December 2018)</ins></p></td><td><p><ins class="ministerial">1072</ins></p></td></tr></tbody></table>
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