Ombudsman complaints regarding Child Support customers 277-09060000

An Ombudsman complaint is referred to as a section 7A (preliminary investigation) or a section 8, to align with the legislative basis for the complaint from the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman finalises the complaint by providing Child Support with a section 12 Finalisation Notice or a section 12(4) Finalisation Notice with comments.

The Ombudsman has the power to obtain information and documents from the Services Australia in relation to Child Support customers relevant to a complaint investigation.

An Ombudsman Complaint Transfer (OCT) is received when a complaint is made to the Ombudsman with respect to action taken by Services Australia and the Ombudsman decides the complaint issues would be more effectively managed by Services Australia. In these instances, the Ombudsman decides not to investigate the action and transfers the complaint to the Services Australia for management in accordance with the Step 2 complaint process.

ORMS is the single point of contact for the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office when dealing with the agency. ORMS is responsible for coordinating timely responses to the Ombudsman’s office.

Complaints for Child Support are received by ORMS and forwarded to ExCCS team via the APH mailbox for investigation, response and approval.

For joint complaints for Child Support and Centrelink, Child Support ExCCS Service Support Manager (ExCCS SSM) will collaborate with External Complaints Resolution Team (ECRT) to ensure one Multicultural and Tailored Services National Manager approval is received.

Section 7A, 8 Investigations and 12(4) Final Notices

The ExCCS Program Support Officer (PSO) calculates the due date for the ExCCS Service Officer to send the response to their Service Support Manager. This is generally a minimum of 48 hours before the due date to ORMS

The ExCCS PSO allocates and routes the Ombudsman unactioned intray to an ExCCS Service Officer. If the Ombudsman response date is less than 28 days, they will change the intray due date to be in line with the email request

If an extension of time is required to finalise the complaint ORMS must be contacted with a request.

Ombudsman Complaint Transfers

All OCTs are forwarded by email to the ECRT mailbox. The ECRT Program Support Officer will allocate any OCTs relating to child support to the APH mailbox for actioning.

The ExCCS PSO allocates and routes the Step 2 complaint intray (14 day due date) to an ExCCS Service Officer. The allocation email will include a copy of the Ombudsman email outlining the complaint issues and best contact number for the customer.

Customer contact is to be made within 2 business days to acknowledge receipt of the OCT.

If a written response is provided to an OCT, ExCCS SSM approval is required.

Compliments and complaints provide the agency with a valuable source of information to:

• assess performance
• identify systemic issues
• assist in the training, development and support of staff
• provide written feedback on all staff compliments and upheld and partially upheld complaints using the Staff Feedback tool