Complaint Criteria

Are you a small business (less than 50 employees)?

Do you have a payment related issue with a large UK based business (more than 50 employees)?

You can still complain if you had fewer than 50 employees:

on the day when payment was due
on average in your last tax year
on average so far in your current tax year, if you’re at least 6 months into it
on average since your business started, if that’s less than 6 months ago
The regulations explain how to calculate your average number of employees.

Was payment due within the past 12 months?

Have you already attempted to resolve the payment issue with your customer?

We might still accept your complaint if you have a good reason for not meeting these requirements, for example:

trying to resolve the problem with your customer would have damaged your business
deliberate delays by your customer stopped you complaining within 12 months of when payment was due

Click here to submit your complaint to the Office of the Small Business Commissioner

The complaints process

Stage 1 – Email the Office of the Small Business Commissioner or call our complaints helpline on 0121 695 7770. You will receive immediate acknowledgment of your complaint

Stage 2 – The Office of the Small Business Commissioner will contact you within 2 working days to let you know if your complaint is in/out of scope. If we are able to proceed, a Caseworker will be assigned to manage your case

Stage 3 – A Caseworker will gather and analyse relevant evidence from both sides, the Caseworker will contact you to inform you of their decision and make recommendations

If the Commissioner, Paul Uppal, believes your case is an example that could help change payment practices it might be included in a public report.