Service Charter
Who can access our services
Our services are available to all, we are committed to ensuring that we are accessible to everyone and our services are free of charge.
Customer service
Making contact with us
If you want to complain to us, you can use our online complaint form or contact us by phone or in writing.
You can contact and make a complain to us anonymously, although we can usually help more if you can tell us who you are.
If you prefer, someone else can contact us on your behalf, however we may ask you to complete a form to provide your permission.
When you contact us
We will communicate clearly and treat you with respect and courtesy. Where we can, we will communicate with you using the method you ask us to.
We will:
- tell you what is happening
- tell you how long it may take us to deal with your contact
- explain clearly what we can and cannot do
- keep you informed of progress.
We will also give you (or your representative):
- the name of the person handling your contact
- a reasonable opportunity to provide us with information
- clear reasons for our decisions.
Your contact to our Office will be taken seriously. We will listen to what you tell us, and consider it carefully. We may ask you to provide information in writing, give us more detail or make an appointment.
We will make decisions fairly and independently and explain the actions we took in response to your contact. If you are unhappy with a decision we made, you can ask us to review our decision using the Request review of our decision form (PDF) (Word version).
Our service standards
We aim to resolve your contact promptly.
Our response time will vary depending on which agency or organisation your contact is about. Each contact is different, and the timing will depend on the nature and complexity of your contact.
To give you an idea of how long it might take for us to respond to your contact, we have published our timeliness targets.
More information about our process for handling complaints can be found on our frequently asked questions page.
How you can help us
We aim to maintain high standards when delivering our services. To help us meet our commitments, we ask that you:
- are polite, respectful, courteous and willing to listen
- give us a clear idea of your concerns and the outcome you are seeking
- give us full and accurate information within the specified timeframe
- tell us about any new and relevant information
- tell us about any changes to your contact details or if you no longer want our help
- tell us if you need help to access our services, for example, if you need an interpreter or information in an alternative format.
Before contacting us, you should contact the complaints area of the agency or organisation you are complaining about, so they have an opportunity to resolve your complaint first.
We may restrict how we communicate with people whose conduct we consider to be unreasonable.
If you are unhappy with our service
We welcome your feedback, even if it is critical of us. We value your feedback because it allows us to understand your experience and helps us improve our service.
If you are unhappy with our service we ask you to first speak with our staff member you have been dealing with. This gives you a chance to discuss your concerns with them directly.
If you are:
- still unhappy after speaking to that staff member, or
- not comfortable raising the matter with the staff member concerned
then you can make a complaint about our service using the Request review of our decision form (PDF) (Word version).
We are committed to improvement and publish information about our performance.