Details of The Rent Service Customer Service Charter

1. What we mean by customer

1.1 All customers have needs and expectations, which is no different for users of public services. Effective and customer focussed service delivery remains our key objective.

1.2 We have front line customers who are directly affected by our service delivery and we have indirect or stakeholder/ customers.

1.3 Our front line customers include:

Local authority housing benefit staff
Landlords (including housing associations, registered social landlords, individuals and managing agents)
Tenants with regulated (fair rent) tenancies
Housing Benefit recipients currently living in the private rented sector
Potential Housing Benefit recipients living or intending to live in the private rented sector.

1.4 Our indirect/stakeholder customers include:

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM)
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
The taxpayers to whom we are accountable.
Additionally, we consider those who are affected by what we do further down the user chain such as landlord’s associations, tenant groups, minority representatives and the impact that our service has on the community at large.

2. Access to our services

2.1 We will make our services more readily available to as many of our customers as possible by the use of up to date technology. Many of our forms and leaflets are available to download from our Internet website and our core public information leaflets have been translated into several languages that are widely used throughout the country. We will continue to develop our services to make more of them available electronically.

2.2 All our printed public information documents will be in plain English and have the Plain English Campaign Crystal Mark accreditation.

3. Our standard of service

3.1 Our standards of service aim to provide you with friendly and efficient levels of service.

3.2 If you telephone us, we propose to:

Answer within 15 seconds (5 rings)
Give the name of our organisation
Connect you to the right extension first time
Answer your query immediately, where this is not possible we will return your call within 48 hours.

3.3 If you visit us and have not made an appointment, we propose to:

Ensure that a member of staff sees you on arrival
Ensure that you see a member of staff who is able to attend to your enquiry or request within 15 minutes
Make arrangements to provide interpreting services for customers who do not speak English or have other communication difficulties
Make it easy for people with children to see Rent Officers.

3.4 If you write or e-mail us, we will:

Respond to your letter or e-mail, fully within 5 working days
Where this is not possible we will tell you why and will aim to provide a full response within 10 working days.

3.5 If we visit you, we will:

Arrive for fixed pre-arranged meetings within 15 minutes of the scheduled appointment time
Arrive for time-banded appointments within the given time band.

3.6 For security reasons:

All of our officers who visit you in your home have identity cards giving their name, photograph and job.
The staff you meet at our offices will be wearing name badges

3.7 In handling your affairs, we will:

Deal with them on a strictly confidential basis, within the law
Respect your privacy
Find a private room for you if you visit us to discuss your affairs.

3.8 We agree that you have the right to:

Know how we have determined your rent assessment and the outcome.
See the personal information we hold about you subject to the guidelines and limitations set out in the Data Protection Act 1988.
Ask for us for any other information we keep and to receive a response from us in accordance with the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.
Have home visits if you are customer who has access difficulties and whose business cannot be dealt with by correspondence or over the phone.

3.9 However you contact us, we will:

Provide a clear, accurate and helpful response
Make clear what action we will take next, and by what date
Make clear what action you need to take next, and by what date
Give our names
Be courteous and professional

3.10 Each office throughout the Service displays:

The name of the Regional Director and Area Manager
Office opening hours
Office telephone number
Details about our complaints procedure
Current performance figures
Public information leaflets on our services in English. (Public information leaflets are also available in a range of other languages on our Internet site).

4. Open Government Code of Practice

4.1 The Rent Service follows the Open Government Code of Practice. The Code involves careful handling of information, efficient delivery of service, providing accessible information to the public within reasonable time-scales and restricting information only when there are good reasons for doing so.

4.2 In addition, The Rent Service is working towards the implementation of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 giving full public access rights to information by 2005.

4.3 The Rent Service complies with the Data Protection Act (DPA) and our customers have the right to see personal information that we hold about them to ensure that it is correct and is being processed fairly and lawfully.

5. Our commitment to diversity and racial equality

5.1 The Rent Service wholeheartedly supports the principles of diversity and racial equality and opposes all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination on the grounds of religion, colour, race, nationality, ethnic origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation or disability.

5.2 During our time as an Executive Agency of the ODPM we developed a joint Race Equality Scheme with the ODPM, as well as our own specific Rent Service Race Equality Action Plan. We are fully committed to the principles and actions outlined in the Race Equality Scheme and our Race Equality Action Plan. These can be found on our website.

5.3 On 1 April 2004 we became an Executive Agency of the DWP. The DWP is committed to providing services that embrace diversity and provide equality of opportunity for all.

6. Keeping you informed about our performance

6.1 We will seek the opinion of our customers on the service we provide in an annual National Customer Satisfaction Survey, sent to nearly 35,000 customers and a Local Authority Satisfaction Survey, distributed to over 350 local authorities throughout England. The full reports are published on in the corporate publication section of this site

6.2 The First Secretary sets challenging targets for us to meet each year based on the needs and expectations of our customers. This year we exceeded our overall customer satisfaction target of 90% by achieving an overall customer satisfaction rate of over 94% compared to 87% the previous year. We have raised our customer satisfaction target from 90% to 92% in 2005/2006 which will be measured in the next National Customer Satisfaction Survey.

7. Our complaints procedure

7.1 The Rent Service aims to satisfy any complaint that you may have and is interested in suggestions on how our service can be improved.

7.2 Our complaints procedure is published in the About section of The Rent Service internet site and is also available as an information leaflet from any of our offices.

7.3 Problems we cannot solve

If your complaint is about a matter of government policy, we will not be able to deal with it. You should contact the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) or the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), the Contact details are provided in section 11.