Independent Review Service
This page contains information about the Independent Review Service, including:
What it does
What complaints are eligible?
Cost
Timescale
Procedure
Outcomes
What it does
The Independent Review Service (IRS) is part tribunal, part ombudsman. It provides an independent review of discretionary Social Fund decisions, which are usually made in Jobcentre Plus offices. It covers England, Wales and Scotland. The IRS is funded by the Department for Work and Pensions but operates independently.
For information on complaints about benefits, see Benefits.
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What complaints are eligible?
The Social Fund has two parts:
- The regulated scheme, which covers funeral, maternity and winter fuel expenses.
- The discretionary scheme, which includes community care grants, budgeting loans and crisis loans.
Community care grants are given to help vulnerable people on specified benefits live independently. They are grants, not loans, so they don’t have to be repaid. Budgeting loans are a form of interest-free credit for people on certain benefits to help with buying one-off items of furniture. Crisis loans are available to anyone, but only in emergencies or disaster situations.
Decisions about whether to give you one of these Social Fund grants or loans are made by Jobcentre Plus officers. If you are not happy with their decision, there is an internal review process. If things are not resolved after the internal review, you can complain to the IRS.
You can’t take complaints about the regulated scheme to the IRS.
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Cost
Access to the IRS is free for complainants.
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Timescale
The IRS can work very quickly in an emergency – in 2009-10, 89.5% of decisions in urgent cases were completed within 24 hours. Of non-urgent cases, 96.7% of straightforward complaints were completed within twelve working days, and 89.5% of those involving complex enquiries or further investigation were completed within 21 working days.
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Procedure
You can apply to the IRS direct if you have a complaint and are not happy with the internal review conducted by Jobcentre Plus. You can contact the IRS by freephone, email or letter – the details are on the IRS website. There is a link at the bottom of this page.
Like an ombudsman, the IRS has the power to investigate and to consider how a decision was made. Unlike an ombudsman, the IRS also has the power to consider the merits of the original decision.
The review is in two stages. At the first stage the IRS inspector considers whether the law was interpreted correctly, whether the Jobcentre Plus reviewer acted fairly and whether he or she observed principles of natural justice.
If the IRS inspector thinks the decision was taken incorrectly, he or she can require the Jobcentre Plus office to reconsider its decision, or can overturn the decision and make a new decision.
Even if the IRS inspector finds that the decision was taken correctly, he or she can then consider, at the second stage
- the merits of the case
- whether the decision was right in the circumstances and
- relevant changes in circumstances and new evidence
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Outcomes
In 2009-10, the IRS reviewed 49,927 decisions. Of these, 42% were changed by the IRS. When a decision is changed, an award can be made where one had not been made at the Jobcentre Plus review, or an award made by Jobcentre Plus can be increased.
- in community care grant decisions, new awards averaged £465, and increased awards averaged £261;
- in crisis loan decisions, new awards averaged £408 and increased awards averaged £395; and
- in budgeting loan decisions, new awards averaged £206 and increased awards averaged £166.
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Updated November 2010
