Guidance

How to bring a complaint to the Independent Case Examiner

The Independent Case Examiner reviews complaints about certain government organisations that deal with benefits, work and financial support.

• From: Independent Case Examiner
• Published: 1 February 2013
• Last updated: 21 September 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 21 September 2026

     The page 'How to bring a complaint to the Independent Case Examiner ' has been renamed to 'How and when to bring a complaint to the Independent Case Examiner' and updated to reflect the up-to-date Independent Case Examiners processes.

  2. 28 May 2026

     Removed Pension Wise from the list of organisations ICE can deal with complaints against.

  3. 4 February 2026

     Welsh page created and published

  4. 30 July 2025

     Updated ICE contact email to contact@ice.gov.uk.

  5. 7 February 2025

     Removed contact number from - 'How to bring a complaint to the Independent Case Examiner' page.

  6. 6 March 2023

     HTML guidance has been updated, out of date PDF version has been removed.

  7. 17 July 2020

     Added details about adjustments to the 'The information we need' section.

  8. 24 February 2020

     Updated section 6 'How we deal with your complaint' to clarify what happens after ICE receives a complaint.

  9. 11 February 2020

     Amended 'How to bring a complaint to the Independent Case Examiner' section 6.1. Resolution and fixed broken links in the PDF version.

  10. 6 February 2020

      Updated HTML and PDF guidance to reflect changes to procedures in paragraphs 1, 2, 5, 6 and sub-paragraphs, 8 and sub-paragraphs and deleted 9 - Professional fees.

  11. 16 July 2019

      Updated the list of organisations that ICE deals with (part 1). Explained that you need to provide written consent if you want a representative to act on your behalf (part 4). Added guidance about corresponding by email securely (part 4.1).

  12. 17 May 2019

      Added Pension Wise to the list of organisations ICE deals with. Clarified the order in which ICE deals with cases in section 6.2 'If you and the agency or business can’t agree'.

  13. 11 September 2017

      Added "We deal with post received after 12 noon on the next working day." (section 4).

  14. 4 May 2017

      Changed the time for completing action on "can't agree" cases to within 15 weeks of allocation to an investigation case manager, or within 20 weeks if the case requires a report from the Independent Case Examiner (paragraph 6.2).

  15. 5 April 2017

      Added "If you want us to return any documents you send us, please tell us when you send them" to the guidance.

  16. 6 February 2017

      Updated opening hours – 8am to 6pm.

  17. 24 November 2015

      Updated HTML and PDF guidance to reflect changes to procedures and timings (mainly in paragraphs 6, 6.1 and 6.2).

  18. 16 March 2015

      Added "Fit for Work (the government-funded advice service)" to the list of organisations ICE deals with.

  19. 8 October 2014

      Updated guidance to stress the importance of having a FINAL response that mentions ICE before contacting ICE.

  20. 1 February 2013

      First published.

Documents

How and when to bring a complaint to the Independent Case Examiner

HTML

Details

This guidance explains how the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) acts as an impartial referee for people who:

• feel they have been treated unfairly
• are unhappy with the way their complaint has been dealt with

This is a free service.

Please don’t contact us until you get a final response from the government agency or business that says you can bring your case to us.

Find out how to ask ICE for help if you have difficulties dealing with us because of a disability or health condition.

Budgeting Loans

See our separate guidance on how to ask for a further, independent review of a Budgeting Loan.