Feedback statistics covering complaints received by Social Security Scotland.
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| Channel | |
| Measure Type | |
| Reason |
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| Reference Period | |
| Stage Of Complaints Process | |
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Reference Area
(showing types of area available in these data) |
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Entire dataset
Note: These may be large files. |
CSVN-Triples |
Feedback statistics covering the number of complaints received by Social Security Scotland from 4 September 2018 to 30 September 2021. Figures are broken down by financial year, with 2021/22 covering from April to September 2021 only.
Carer’s Allowance Supplement was launched in September 2018, followed by Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment (December 2018), Best Start Grant Early Learning Payment (April 2019), Best Start Grant School Age Payment (June 2019), Best Start Foods (August 2019), Funeral Support Payment (September 2019), Young Carer Grant (October 2019), Job Start Payment (August 2020), Child Winter Heating Assistance (November 2020), Scottish Child Payment (November 2020), and Child Disability Payment (pilot July 2021, national November 2021).
Data on complaint outcomes, compliments and suggestions are also available in separate datasets.
The full publication and tables covering complaints, compliments and suggestions are available on the Scottish Government website.
This data contains no sensitive, personal information.
The data used to produce the official statistics are the same as the data extracted from the case management system on a monthly basis that is used for internal reporting within Social Security Scotland. As such, the data is checked monthly for consistency with previous extracts (for example, do numbers of complaints, compliments and suggestions received increase as expected over time). Summary figures for number of complaints have been compared to equivalent summary figures produced from clerical records, and discrepancies investigated.
Additional quality assurance and cleaning has been carried out on specific variables:
• The dataset has been checked for duplicate records based on Case ID number.
• Variables have been checked for missing information.
• Feedback received dates and decisions dates have been checked to see whether they fall within expected ranges (e.g. after September 2018) and are consistent with those produced by clerical records.
• For complaints, the benefit that a complaint refers to and reason for the complaint have been checked for consistency between stage 1 and stage 2.
Once the data is aggregated for publication, the final statistics are quality assured by a different member of the statistics team. The final data tables are checked by the lead statistician.
• Rounding and disclosure control
Feedback numbers have been rounded to the nearest five for disclosure control. Figures may not sum due to rounding.
• Stage 1 and Stage 2 complaints
For complaint benefit and reason, we have used the first recorded benefit or reason with a complaint. For complaint outcomes, if an application had both a stage 1 and stage 2 complaint outcome, we have counted this as two separate outcomes – a complaint that progressed from stage 1 to stage 2 will have two outcomes.
Complaints that went straight to stage 2 are included in total complaints and stage 2 complaints figures, and used to calculate the percentage of complaints reaching stage 2.
• Comparison to clerical data
Comparison of data from the case management system to clerical records showed several discrepancies. These discrepancies have been investigated with the Client Experience team, and errors in case management system data have been manually fixed to match the clerical record.
Complaint channel is based on the first reason given for a complaint when it was received at either Stage 1 or 2. Telephone, email and letter have been available for clients to use to complain since 2018. Telephone was unavailable from mid-March to mid-April 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19. Webchat was introduced as a communication channel from 1 May 2020. However, webchat was only added to the feedback recording system in February 2021. Where a complaint was received before February 2021, but the complaint notes indicate the complaint was received through webchat, we have counted this complaint as being received by webchat. It is possible that there were further complaints by webchat that have not been identified – these will be counted under ‘telephone’. Social media was added to the feedback recording system from April 2021, and includes complaints received through telephone, email, letter or webchat that were originally signposted via social media.
• Comparisons with DWP complaints statistics
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has a different complaints process to Social Security Scotland, and as such, DWP complaints statistics are not directly comparable to these statistics. Further information about complaints at DWP and links to their latest statistics are available on the DWP website.
Complaints fall under the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) and their complaints handling procedure. This sets out a 2 stage internal complaints process. Frontline resolution – stage 1, allows 5 working days to respond to the client’s complaint. Where a client remains unhappy with this response they can proceed to investigation – stage 2, which allows 20 working days to investigate and provide a response. If the client still remains unhappy then they can choose to take their complaint to the SPSO.
A small number of complaints went straight to investigation – stage 2. Not all complaints are suitable for frontline resolution and not all complaints will be satisfactorily resolved at that stage. Complaints handled at the investigation stage of the complaints handling procedure are typically complex or require a detailed examination. Examples of this include:
• the client/appointee refuses to take part in frontline resolution
• the issues raised are complex and require detailed investigation
• the complaint relates to serious, high-risk or high-profile issues
The majority of Stage 2 complaints were initially received at stage 1 and later progressed to stage 2.
Complaint reasons are categorised by Social Security Scotland staff based on the information received from clients. Complaint reasons were amended from 12 March 2021 to better reflect types of complaints received and provide more focussed data to inform improvement activity. Complaints received prior to 12 March 2021 have been mapped to new categories as set out in the main publication. 'Client expectation not met - Information provided' is a new category that does not map onto previous complaint reasons.
Datasets will be updated on statistics.gov.scot within one month of the date of the publication.
The publications are available on the Scottish Government website.
Revisions and corrections to previously published statistics are dealt with in accordance with the Scottish Government Statistician Group corporate policy statement on revisions and corrections - a copy of which is available on the Scottish Government website.
This is a linked data resource: it has a permanent unique uri at which both humans and machines can find it on the Internet, and which can be used an identifier in queries on our SPARQL endpoint.
A linked data-orientated view of dimensions and values
| Dimension | Locked Value |
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Benefit Type
http://statistics.gov.scot/def/dimension/benefitType
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(not locked to a value) |
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Channel
http://statistics.gov.scot/def/dimension/channel
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(not locked to a value) |
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Reason
http://statistics.gov.scot/def/dimension/reason
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(not locked to a value) |
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Reference Area
http://purl.org/linked-data/sdmx/2009/dimension#refArea
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(not locked to a value) |
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Reference Period
http://purl.org/linked-data/sdmx/2009/dimension#refPeriod
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(not locked to a value) |
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Stage Of Complaints Process
http://statistics.gov.scot/def/dimension/stageOfComplaintsProcess
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(not locked to a value) |
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Measure Type
http://purl.org/linked-data/cube#measureType
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(not locked to a value) |
Linked Data is stored in graphs. We keep dataset contents (the data) separately from the metadata, to make it easier for you to find exactly what you need.
The data in this dataset are stored in the graph: http://statistics.gov.scot/graph/social-security-scotland-feedback-complaints
The data structure definition for this data cube dataset is stored in the same graph as the data: http://statistics.gov.scot/graph/social-security-scotland-feedback-complaints
All other metadata about this dataset are stored in the graph: http://statistics.gov.scot/graph/social-security-scotland-feedback-complaints/metadata
A breakdown by type of the 181 resources in this dataset's data graph.
| Resource type | Number of resources |
|---|---|
| Collection | 2 |
| Component specification | 9 |
| Data set | 1 |
| Data structure definition | 1 |
| Observation | 168 |
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