Discretionary Assistance Fund: complaints

You can submit your complaint in the language of your choice by:

• e-mailing daf.feedback@necsws.com
• writing to Discretionary Assistance Fund, PO Box 2377, Wrexham, LL11 0LG
• telephoning the DAF number on 0800 859 5924

You can ask someone else or an organisation such as Citizen’s Advice Bureau to make a complaint on your behalf.

What is a complaint?

A complaint is when you are not happy with the service you have received. This is different from not agreeing with the decision made on your DAF application.  If you don’t agree with the decision made please apply for under the Discretionary Assistance Fund: review process.

We aim to continuously improve services for managing the Discretionary Assistance Fund in Wales. Unfortunately, mistakes can happen. Sometimes our service, or the way we respond to you may fall short of our promises or your expectations. If this happens, we need you to tell us so that we can make improvements. Please give us the opportunity to put things right and to prevent them from happening again. If you are unhappy with the service, you receive you have a right to complain.

When should you complain?

In line with our definition given above, complaints can be made if you are unhappy with our service or the way in which staff have treated you, for example because:

• you felt staff were discourteous or unhelpful
• you believe information you have been given is misleading or inaccurate
• you felt staff failed to follow policies, rules of procedures

Any request to raise a complaint that does not fall within the remit of the complaints definition above will automatically be raised as a review on your behalf.

Making a complaint

If you are making a complaint, for us to resolve it for you as quickly as possible we will need to know:

• your name
• where we can contact you (your postal and/or e-mail address and a telephone number) and information on how you would prefer to be contacted
• if you need any help in making the complaint (such as someone to act on your behalf or an interpreter)
• the details of your complaint, what you think we did wrong or failed to do
• when you become aware of the problem and/or the date of the incident you are complaining about
• if you have already put your concern or complaint to a staff member
• what you would like us to do to put things right for you

The complaints process

There are 3 stages in our complaints process.

Stage 1: informal resolution by NECSWS

Our priority is to try and resolve your complaint, to put things right as quickly as possible where we can. This will be done by a senior member of the NECSWS DAF team. If you do not agree with the outcome, you can escalate your complaint to the next stage.

Stage 2: investigation by NECSWS

If Stage 1 does not resolve the complaint to your satisfaction it can be more formally investigated by the NECSWS Operations Manager. In this stage, we will write to you within 5 working days of receiving the complaint and look to investigate and write to you with our findings within 15 working days of receiving the complaint.

Stage 3: complaint to the Welsh Government

If you are still unhappy after we have investigated your complaint, you can request that the complaint is reviewed by the Welsh Government. This request must be made in writing within 15 working days of you receiving our findings in Stage 2. The Welsh Government will review the handling and decision made in relation to your complaint and respond to you in writing within 10 working days.

Making a complaint about the DAF service will not affect any future contact you may have or any future decisions about applications you may make to the Discretionary Assistance Fund.

The person looking at your complaint will usually need to see all relevant records that we hold relevant about you, which could include recordings of telephone conversations relating to a DAF application, notes of conversations, letters, e-mails or whatever may be relevant to your particular concern. If you don’t want this to happen, it’s important that you tell us. Refusal to let us look at all relevant information and evidence may however affect our ability to investigate and resolve your complaint.

If you make a complaint, we will respect your right to confidentiality. Although we will need to share the information you give us with others who might be dealing with your complaint, we will only do this if necessary. We will not pass on any information unless we have to do so by law, and will only pass on as much as is necessary.

Please note: This information is available in Welsh, large print and can be made available in other formats (Braille and disk, and other languages)

NEC Software Solutions(NECSWS) is the organisation that deliver the DAF on behalf of Welsh Government. NECSWS are the internal reviewers for the DAF.