Service Standards

Our promise to you

At all times we will:

The Customer Services Centres at Stockton Central Library, Church Road and Thornaby Pavilion (Library) are open Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5pm, Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm and Saturday 9.30am to 12.30pm.
You will usually be seen within 10 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.

You can call us 8.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Thursday, 8am to 5.30pm Friday and 9.30am to 12.30pm 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.

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

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

We have a dedicated visit line. You can call our visit line 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.

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 nine days of receiving the change.
We will send your appeals to the Tribunals Service within three calendar months.
We will pay your Housing Benefit within seven days of a successful decision being made on your claim.

We will acknowledge your complaint within five 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.