The Rent Service Customer Service Charter

Our commitment

We are committed to delivering an efficient and high-quality public service. We aim to be open, to answer for our actions, to provide information quickly and politely, and to help anyone who contacts us.

Helping us to put things right

We are always keen to hear the views of our customers, particularly the general public, about our performance - what we do right, and what we do wrong. We recognise that things go wrong from time to time and, as a result, we do not provide the standards of service that we have set ourselves. We are especially keen to know when this happens as it gives us an opportunity to put things right and to learn from our mistakes. That way, we can get it right next time.

What you can expect from us

As a public service we are committed to providing a quality service to our customers. Here we provide details of;

  1. What we mean by customer
  2. Access to our service
  3. Our standard of services
  4. Open Government Code of Practice
  5. Our commitment to diversity and racial equality
  6. Surveys
  7. How to find and contact us
  8. Our complaints procedure
  9. How to complain

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
  • LHA exempt customers, these include:
    Board and attendance
    Caravan or mobile home (including site rent)
    Houseboat (including mooring charge)
    Hostel, or
    Registered social landlord

1.4 Our indirect/stakeholder customers include:

  • Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
  • Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)
  • 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.

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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.

 

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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.

3.2 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 if required for customers where English may not be their first language or have other communication difficulties
  • Make it easy for people with caring responsibilities to see Rent Officers or other staff.

3.3 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 aim to provide a full response within a further 10 working days.

3.4 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.

3.5 In terms of security:

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

3.6 In handling your affairs, we will:

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

3.7 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 1998
  • Ask 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 a customer who has access difficulties and whose business cannot be dealt with by correspondence or over the phone.

3.8 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

3.9 Each office throughout the Rent Service displays:

  • The name of the Service Delivery Director and Territorial Manager
  • Office opening hours
  • Office telephone number
  • Details about our complaints procedure
  • Current performance figures
  • Public information leaflets about our services in English.
  • (Public information leaflets are also available in a range of other languages on our web site: www.therentservice.gov.uk )

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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 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.

 

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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.

 

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6. Surveys

6.1 Customer Satisfaction

The Agency places great importance in gathering views and opinions from its customers as it aims to provide an even better and more efficient service.

In 2008-09 TRS will conduct the following two surveys:

6.2 Local Authority Survey

The 2008-09 survey will canvas the views of LAs who are our primary customers. Our target is to achieve at least a 95% satisfactory or better rating from our LA customers who respond to the survey. The survey will provide us with helpful feedback on what we do well, and will highlight areas of our service where we may need to make improvements.

Past Surveys

pdf Local Authority Satisfaction Survey Report 2007-08

pdf Local Authority Satisfaction Survey Report 2006-07

6.3 National Customer Satisfaction Survey

The 2008-09 survey will canvas the views of Fair Rent and HB customers. Our target is to ensure at least 95% of our Fair Rent customers, and those HB customers that we inspect, rate our service as satisfactory or better.

The surveys will assist the Agency with meeting:

  • TRS requirements of our continuous improvement process
  • DWP business plan targets set each year by the Secretary of State

We aim to increase the response rate in both of these surveys in order to gather a broader and fuller picture from a wider range of our stakeholders. This will help us to continue to shape our services to meet the needs of our customers.

 

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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 Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the Contact details are provided in section 11.