Decision letter policies

​​​​​​Request ​814369635

1. Please prioritise all recorded policies, procedures, guidance, and staff instructions relating to: 

- how decision letters are issued; 

- what constitutes valid notification; 

- how time limits are calculated where notification is disputed; 

- how staff are instructed to deal with claims of non-receipt. 

2. Please provide any complaint categories, issue codes, or internal classifications used to record complaints relating to: 

- non-receipt of letters; 

- late receipt; 

- disputed notification; 

- missed review or appeal deadlines. 

3. Please provide any recorded management information, reports, or summaries (including complaint summaries or internal reviews) referring to: 

- non-receipt of letters; 

- delayed notification; 

- missed deadlines due to postal issues. 

4. If available within the cost limit, please include high-level totals (per year) of complaints or cases involving non-receipt or late receipt of decision letters.

Clarification request

In relation to questions 1–3, please specify which department or service area you are referring to.

Clarification response

Income support housing gateway

Response

Income Support

1.

Income Support decision letters are awarded in accordance with Income Support legislation (see below). There are no policies or procedures specific to individual letters at the detail level requested, however the Income Support Public Policy Guidelines published on the Gov.je website provides information about such notifications.

The relevant document A Guide to Income Support is located here- A Guide to Income Support. Section 12 provides information to help claimants understand the award letter, as well as some examples.

- Income Support legislation requires that every decision that affects a claim to Income Support is notified to the claimant, and any other adults in their Income Support household. This must be done in writing. In most cases this will result in an award letter, which is a letter that sets out all the parts of an Income Support claim.

- Part 6 of the Income Support (General Provisions) (Jersey) Order 2008​ sets out the framework for how Income Support determinations/decisions are to be notified. Article 13A provides for the criteria for the issuing of valid notifications. The determination must be made in writing and confirm the determination and reasons for it as well as the redetermination rights against that determination. A notice of a determination or a redetermination, under Article 13A(5)(b) shall be treated as duly sent if sent to the person’s usual or last known address.

- Under Article 13, Income Support redeterminations requests must be made wi​thin 21 days of receiving the first determination unless the determination was in respect of a decision under Article 12(1A). Where a receipt of a notification is disputed, determining officers may consider any exceptional or mitigating circumstances, usually with supporting evidence, as to why a redetermination request was not submitted within the required timescales.

The date a notification is deemed received is on the second next working day it was posted from the department. As a best practice, this was adopted from the Royal Court Rules 2004 at which 5/6(3) states: 'Without prejudice to Article 7 of the Interpretation (Jersey) Law 1954​, a document sent by post to an address in Jersey shall, unless the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been served on the second day after the day on which it was posted, days on which there is no collection or delivery of letters excepted.’

- The responsibility for ensuring the correct contact details are held with the Income Support Department rests with claimants. Determining Officers apply relevant decision-making principles when dealing with claims of non-receipt of notifications. These include consideration of the evidence, applying the relevant legislation & guidelines, confirming who has the burden of proof and then arriving at a reasonable decision.

Income Support does not hold any additional recorded policies, procedures or staff instructions specific to individual decision letters. Accordingly, this information is not held for the purposes of Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Housing Gateway

Response

1. The Gateway process requires that customers are informed of every decision made. Notifications are issued primarily by email. Where a customer does not use email, a decision letter is sent by post. There are no policies or procedures specific to individual letters.

Applicants and existing social housing tenants have the right to request a review of any decision made under these eligibility criteria that they do not agree with. A review must be requested within 28 days of the Gateway’s decision and must include the reason for the review. Requests should be submitted in writing to the Gateway. Contact details are provided in Appendix B. All requests will be reviewed by a more senior officer within Employment, Social Security and Housing. Where a decision falls outside Gateway criteria, it will be considered by an officer acting under delegated authority from the Minister for Housing, or by the Minister. This is noted in section 17 of the Eligibility Criteria Policy.

It is the customer’s responsibility for ensuring the correct contact details are provided to the Gateway team at the time of application.

2. 

Complaints for the department (including Income Support and Housing Gateway) are categorised into standard categories and are available on the webpage Feedback statistics.

The issues described in relation to non-receipt of letters, late receipt, disputed notification or missed review or appeal deadlines, could fall into the categories of:

• time taken

• mistake was made by us, or

• consistency of information we give you.

Each complaint is assessed and categorised upon receipt and the category chosen based on what fits the specific circumstance described.

3. 

Employment, Social Security and Housing (ESSH) records management information, reports, summaries, complaint summaries, or internal reviews at an individual customer case level. It would therefore require all customer contacts to be manually reviewed specifically in reference to non-receipt of decision letters, delayed notification, or missed deadlines due to postal issues.

The work required has been reviewed and would exceed the maximum cost limit set by the Law. Accordingly, Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

4.

Complaints involving the non-receipt or late receipt of decision letters are recorded in different categories as answered in question 2. It would therefore require all complaints to be manually reviewed to identify and report on these complaints.

The work required has been reviewed and would exceed the maximum cost limit set by the Law. Accordingly, Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

Articles applied:

Article 16 - cost excessive

16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.[4]

(2) Despite paragraph (1), a scheduled public authority may still supply the information requested on payment to it of a fee determined by the authority in the manner prescribed by Regulations for the purposes of this Article.

(3) Regulations may provide that, in such circumstances as the Regulations prescribe, if two or more requests for information are made to a scheduled public authority –

(a) by one person; or

(b) by different persons who appear to the scheduled public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign,

the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests is to be taken to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them.

Article 3- meaning of information held

Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.​