Making a complaint

What a complaint is

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction. It can be about:

• service, e.g. the way you've been treated
• location, e.g. access to one of our service centres
• practice, e.g. having to provide the same information more than once
• process, e.g. how long it takes to process your application or not getting an update on how it's going.

If you don't agree with a decision we've made and want to challenge it, there's a different process to follow. You need to apply for a 'review of decision' and it can be reviewed.

Review of a decision

How to make a complaint

You can make the complaint yourself or someone can make a complaint on your behalf.

Get in touch with us

You can either:

• submit your complaint online
• call us and tell us over the phone 
• call us and book an appointment to come in and see us, or
• write to us at Ministry of Social Development, PO Box 1556, Wellington.

What we need from you 

Please be clear, factual and tell us the outcome you would like. Providing your client number, name and contact details will help us to get in touch and help resolve the issue.

If you provide feedback anonymously, we won't be able to respond to you personally.

How we'll respond

We aim to resolve your complaint immediately. We'll investigate to see what went wrong and how it can be put right.

We'll contact you to let you know we've received your complaint and what we'll do to resolve it.

If your complaint is unique and complex and we need to work with others to resolve it, it will take longer. In these situations you will be provided with regular updates.

If you're not happy with the outcome

If you're not happy with the outcome of your complaint, you can take it to another agency.

You can contact:

• your local Member of Parliament (MP)
• the Ombudsman, or 
• the Privacy Commissioner (if it's a complaint about privacy)