Research and analysis

Summary DWP claimant service and experience survey 2017 to 2018

Updated 21 February 2019

About the survey

This summary highlights key findings from the 2017 to 2018 Claimant Service and Experience Survey^{[footnote 1]}.

The report is based on 15,514 telephone interviews, conducted by Kantar Public UK, between 3 August 2017 and 8 May 2018. Only claimants who had made contact with Department for Work and Pensions in the 3 months prior to the start of fieldwork were interviewed by telephone.

The survey was designed to monitor claimant satisfaction with the services offered by the DWP and to inform improvements to the delivery and design of those services.

It provides:

An overall measure of satisfaction across 10 main benefits:

• State Pension
• Pension Credit
• Attendance Allowance
• Carer’s Allowance
• Disability and Living Allowance child^{[footnote 2]}
• Personal Independence Payment
• Employment and Support Allowance
• Income Support
• Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Universal Credit^{[footnote 3]}

A broad range of measures on DWP’s performance based on the DWP Customer Charter.

Information on claimants’ experiences with DWP staff and the use and effectiveness of different channels of communication (including digital access).

A full report, additional data tables and a note on methodology are published alongside this summary^{[footnote 4]}.

Key Findings

Overall satisfaction with DWP services among claimants has decreased this year from 86% in 2016 to 2017 to 84% in 2017 to 2018 but has remained consistently high over the last three years (ranging from 84% to 86%)

Across benefit types, overall satisfaction with DWP services ranged from 80% for Universal Credit claimants and 81% for Employment and Support claimants to 93% for State Pension recipients and 92% for Pension Credit, Attendance Allowance and Carer’s Allowance.

Working Age claimants (Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support) reported a positive experience (ranging between 84% and 95%) for their interactions with Jobcentre Plus staff (reporting that staff were knowledgeable, helpful, polite and understanding of their particular circumstances).

Across benefits, satisfaction levels in 2017 to 2018 remained broadly stable, except for PIP where claimants’ satisfaction fell to 82 per cent (from 87 per cent in 2016 to 201 7)

Benefits	Percent	Base sizes
Overall	84%	15,514
State Pension	93%	482
Pension Credit	92%	455
Attendance Allowance	92%	442
Carer’s Allowance	92%	435
Disability Living Allowance	85%	452
Personal Independence Payment	82%	823
Employment and Support Allowance	81%	2,997
Income Support	92%	450
Jobseeker’s Allowance	84%	3,009
Universal Credit	80%	5,969

Due to changes in the sample composition for Disability Living Allowance and Universal Credit claimants, findings cannot be compared over time. For more information please see the full report.

Communication

Claimants continued to mainly use telephone, post and face-to-face communication during their transactions.

More than 80% of claimants who had face-to-face interactions with DWP reported that staff were polite, helpful, gave the correct information and understood their particular circumstances.

Although few claimants reported receiving a text message as part of their transaction, more than 90% that did felt that SMS was a helpful way to be kept up to date.

Equality

Age

Over the last 3 years, younger (aged 16 to 34) and older (aged 66 plus) claimants were more satisfied than those in mid-life.

Ethnicity

Satisfaction among claimants who described themselves as Asian has increased from 85% in 2015 to 2016 to 91% in 2017 to 2018, whilst satisfaction among claimants who described their ethnicity as mixed had fallen from 82% in 2015 to 2016 to 78% in 2017 to 2018.

Disability

Satisfaction for disabled claimants has fallen (from 83% in 2015 to 2016 to 80% in 2017 to 2018) while satisfaction for non-disabled claimants has increased (from 86% in 2015 to 2016 to 89% in 2017 to 2018).

Customer Charter

Getting it right

Across all benefits, more than 8 in 10 claimants reported that their payment calculations were explained clearly.

Keeping you informed

Although satisfaction among AA and CA remains high (92%), AA and CA claimants were less satisfied with the information they were given about what happens next, being given clearer timings and being kept up to date.

Ease of access

There was a further fall in the proportion of ESA claimants who reported that it was easy to get in touch with DWP (from 69% in 2015 to 2016, 62% in 2016 to 2017 to 59% in 2017 to 2018).

Digital access

Pension age claimants still report relatively low levels of access to the internet (54% of PC and 63% of AA claimants have access).

Changes in claimants’ perceptions between 2016 to 2017 and 2017 to 2018

It was easy to get in touch with DWP

Benefit	Levels	Percentage
ESA	Decreased	59% from 62%
SP	Decreased	82% from 87%
CA	No significant change	79% from 84%

Claimants who reported that they were informed about what would happen next

Benefit	Levels	Percentage
AA	Decreased	57% from 64%
PIP	Decreased	77% from 83%
PC	No significant change	65% from 69%

Claimants who said that difficulties or problems were resolved

Benefit	Levels	Percentage
PIP	Increased	48% from 32%
ESA	No significant change	36% from 33%
JSA	No significant change	38% from 43%

Claimants who reported that they were given clear timings about their transaction

Benefit	Levels	Percentage
AA	No significant change	58% from 58%
JSA	Decreased	71% from 74%
IS	Decreased	66% from 78%

1. DWP Claimant Service and Experience Survey 2017 to 2018 ↩

2. This only includes recipients under the age of 16 ↩

3. This includes recipients of both Universal Credit Live Service and Universal Credit Full Service ↩

4. Claimant Satisfaction and Experience Survey 2015 to 2016 report and Claimant Satisfaction and Experience Survey 2016 to 2017 report ↩