Examination of Witness (Questions 78 -
79)
WEDNESDAY 2 MAY 2001
MS ALEXIS
CLEVELAND
Chairman
78. I think we can move into the second half
of our session. Could I extend a welcome to Alexis Cleveland,
who is Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. We have seen a
few Chief Executives come and go through our hands over the years
and it is very nice to have you here. It is very good of you to
come. I am going to ask Michael first just to give us his view
of your area of activity.
(Mr Buckley) In view of the present time
I would like to be brief. We have, I think, fewer specific points
to raise for the Benefits Agency, but it is a fact that, for example,
in 1999/2000, the Benefits Agency accounted for the greatest number
of complaints against any single body that I received, though
it is only fair to point out that in about 50 per cent of the
complaints we were not able to investigate, or decided not to
investigate. Secondly, of course, the Benefits Agency has a very
large number of dealings with members of the public. Of the complaints
which we investigated, about a third were resolved without the
issue of a statutory investigation report. That pattern has been
maintained in the year just past. My office received some 447
complaints—which is over 25 per cent of the total—against
the Agency, and again over a third were resolved without a statutory
report. I do welcome the readiness of the Agency to apologise
for mistakes at an early stage, and to offer redress and consolatory
payments where this is appropriate. I also recognise the complexity
of the legislation which the Agency have to operate, but I drew
attention in my last report to the need to ensure that changes
to legislation are not used as an excuse for administrative shortcomings.
It is essential that such changes are implemented properly to
avoid disadvantaging those who had protected rights granted under
earlier legislation. Those issues featured in a case which I published
in the selection of completed investigations between October 1999
and March 2000, C.463/99. Another matter that might be helpful
for the Committee to explore is that over the last year or so,
my office has been receiving an increasing number of complaints
about the conduct of medical examinations by doctors employed
by the SEMA group on behalf of BA to assess disability in the
context of entitlement to certain benefits. A report by the Select
Committee on Social Security, which was published in April 2000,
noted that SEMA were undertaking a review of their complaint handling
system and it would be interesting to know far that review has
got. I think that is all I would like to say at this stage.
79. Thank you very much. Would the witness like
to say anything?
(Ms Cleveland) I think just again to give you the
opportunity to ask the questions rather than that. The only point
I would make is, given that we actually deal with over 20 million
customers every year, actually this is a very small proportion
that come through to the Ombudsman, but I think we will continue
to be your largest supplier of clients for some time to come.
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