Ministerial complaints about Child Support customers 277-09050000

• A Services Australia (the agency) response is provided when a Child Support customer writes directly to the Minister or the Prime Minister
• An Electorate Officer (EO) response is provided when an EO from a Parliamentarian’s Office writes to the Minister on behalf of a constituent
• A Ministerial response is provided when a Parliamentarian writes to the Minister on behalf of a constituent

A written response is usually required to all Ministerial and EO complaints.
A verbal resolution may be provided in certain circumstances.

Occasionally a recommendation is made to take no further action (NFA) to the issues raised by the customer if there are no new issues raised in the complaint. The customer must have previously been informed in writing that:

• the matters they have raised have been comprehensively reviewed and addressed, and
• further correspondence from them regarding the same issues will be read and filed but not responded to

An NFA recommendation should be completed and sent for approval within 2 business days of being allocated the complaint. This allows adequate time for a response to be prepared in the event the NFA recommendation is not approved.

The NFA decision is made by the ExCCS Service Manager.

Parliamentarians and their staff making representations on behalf of their constituent are a representative with ordinary authority.

For complaints received from parliamentarians via the Parliamentarian Enquiry line or email, see Parliamentarian complaints about Child Support customers.

A response to a Ministerial complaint is required as follows:

• Agency and EO responses should be prepared, cleared and sent to the customer within 21 calendar days of the agency receiving the complaint
• A Ministerial response should be prepared, cleared and sent to the Minister’s office within 14 days of the complaint registration on the Parliamentary Document Management System (PDMS). This timeframe may vary in accordance with the requirements of the Minister's Office

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