Service Standards

At all times we will

  • Deal with you in a polite and helpful way.
  • Listen to you and take account of your views.
  • If we cannot help you directly we will put you in touch with someone who can.



Visiting our reception;

  • Our reception is open Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5.00pm, and 8.30am to 4.30pm Friday.
  • You will usually be seen within 15 minutes, but often sooner.
  • You can discuss your enquiry in a private interview room.
  • We will keep our reception areas clean and tidy.
  • We will do as much as we can to make our reception areas physically accessible.
  • We will provide a translator if you need one.



Telephoning Us;

  • You can call us 8.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Thursday, 8.00am to 5.30pm Friday and 10.00am to 1.00pm Saturday.
  • Outside these hours you can leave a message on our answerphone.
  • We will aim to answer your call in 5 rings.
  • If we cannot deal with your enquiry at the time of your call we will call you back the next working day.



Emailing Us;

  • We will acknowledge your email within 1 day and respond in full within 10 working days.



Writing to Us;

  • We will acknowledge letters within 5 days and respond in full within 10 working days.



Visiting you
;

  • We have a dedicated visit line. You can call our visitline on 526674. This service will allow you to re-arrange appointments at your convenience.
  • Our Visitors will show you their identification cards when they arrive.
  • We can set up passwords for security if you prefer.



About your claim

  • We will process your claim within 14 days of receiving all the information we need.
  • On average we will process your claim within 29 days of receiving your claim form.
  • We will process all change of circumstances within 9 days of receiving the change.
  • We will send your appeals to the Tribunals Service within 3 calender months.
  • We will pay your Housing Benefit within 7 days of a successful decision being made on your claim.


Complaints

  • We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and respond within 10 working days
  • We will investigate your complaint fully.
  • We will consider your complaint to see how we can improve our service so the same complaint does not arise again.