Research and analysis

Summary: Claimant service and experience survey 2018 to 2019

Published 20 July 2020

CSES team leader	Maxine Willitts
Authors	Steven Coutinho, Charlotte Saunders, David Xu, Simon Edscer
DWP Press Office	020 3267 5129
ISBN	978-1-78659-178-4

About the survey

This summary highlights key findings from the 2018/19 Claimant Service and Experience Survey (CSES)^{[footnote 1]}. The report is based on 15,000 telephone interviews, conducted by Kantar Public UK, between 29 August 2018 and 3 May 2019. Only claimants who had made contact with DWP 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 (SP)
  • Pension Credit (PC)
  • Attendance Allowance (AA)
  • Carer’s Allowance (CA)
  • Disability and Living Allowance child (DLA child)^{[footnote 2]}
  • Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
  • Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
  • Income Support (IS)
  • Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
  • Universal Credit (UC)^{[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 of claimants decreased by 3 percentage points from 2017/18 to 2018/19.

86% in 2016/17

84% in 2017/18

81% in 2018/19

Changes in overall satisfaction by benefit include:

• an 8 percentage point decrease among PIP recipients (74% in 2018/19)
• a 6 percentage point decrease among ESA recipients (75% in 2018/19)
• a 4 percentage point decrease among CA recipients (88% in 2018/19)

Overall satisfaction with UC has remained stable (79% in 2018/19).

Changes in customer charter metric scores include:

• a 6 percentage point increase for ‘Keeping you Informed
• a 5 percentage point decrease for ‘Getting it Right’

The ‘Right Treatment’ and ‘Easy Access’ metrics remained stable.

In 2018/19, overall satisfaction remained broadly stable by benefit, but decreased for PIP, ESA and CA

Benefit or pension	Overall satisfaction
Overall	81%
SP	92%
PC	92%
AA	95%
CA	88%
DLA	89%
PIP	74%
ESA	75%
IS	91%
JSA	86%
UC	79%

Customer Charter

The DWP Customer Charter refers to 4 areas which provide a standard against which customer service delivery can be measured and provides an effective framework to drive improvements to engagement, interaction and satisfaction for both claimants and staff.

Getting it Right

• The Getting it Right metric has decreased by 5 percentage points since 2017/18.
• Overall, 91% of claimants reported that payments arrived when they expected them. This was as high as 97% for DLA child and (apart from AA and ESA) above 90% for all other benefits.
• Of claimants who reported a change of circumstances, 26% reported having to report the same change of circumstance more than once. Across benefits, this ranged from 11% for SP to 33% for UC.

Right Treatment

• The Right Treatment metric remained stable since 2017/18.
• Overall, 86% of claimants reported that staff were helpful, 92% reported that staff treated them fairly and 84% reported that staff understood their circumstances.
• Overall, 82% thought DWP did what they said they would do. This was lowest for PIP claimants at 77%.

Easy Access

• The Easy Access metric remained stable since 2017/18.
• For all benefits except PIP and ESA, over 70% of claimants found it easy to get in touch with DWP. This was 60% for PIP and 58% for ESA.
• Of claimants who received text messages from DWP, 95% found them a helpful way to keep updated.
• Around 90% of UC claimants found the online account easy to access, maintain and use.

Keeping you informed

• The Keeping you Informed metric has increased by 6 percentage points since 2017/18. This increase was largely driven by improvements to JSA, ESA, UC and IS.
• Overall, 45% of claimants were contacted as often as they expected, with 28% contacted less often than expected, and 18% more often than expected.
• Overall, 72% of claimants reported that DWP told them what would happen next in their transaction.

Additional findings

In addition to the DWP Customer Charter, 3 further findings are highlighted:

• experiences of using Jobcentre Plus services (for those claiming working-age benefits)
• claimant characteristics
• digital propensity

Jobcentre Plus

• Around 9 in 10 claimants (88%) reported that Jobcentre Plus staff were well informed, with IS claimants most likely to report this (94%).
• Satisfaction with the help provided to find employment varied among benefits from 53% for ESA to 71% for JSA.
• Overall, 92% of claimants reported that their appointments at Jobcentre Plus took place on time.

Claimant characteristics

• In 2018/19, satisfaction with DWP services was 78% for claimants who indicated that they had a disability, and 88% for claimants who did not.*
• Satisfaction with DWP was high among older and younger age claimants. Nine in 10 claimants over 65 were satisfied with DWP overall.

*This refers to claimant responses to the question: ‘Do you have any physical or mental conditions or illnesses lasting or expected to last for 12 months or more?’

Digital propensity

• Overall, more than 9 in 10 claimants (93%) had access to the internet at home or elsewhere.
• Among claimants with access to the internet, only 43% has used government digital services without help. Of those who had not used the internet for these services, 56% reported that they could have done.

1. DWP claimant service and experience survey 2018 to 2019 ↩

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

3. This includes recipients of Universal Credit Full Service only. ↩

4. Claimant Satisfaction and Experience Survey 2016 to 2017 and Claimant Satisfaction and Experience Survey 2017 to 2018  ↩