Research and analysis

Summary: DWP Customer Experience Survey: Child Maintenance Service 2021 to 2022

Published 29 August 2024

Overview

The Customer Experience Survey (CES) is designed to monitor customer satisfaction with the services offered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to inform improvements in service delivery. It is an ongoing cross-sectional study with quarterly interviewing. This research was externally commissioned by DWP with fieldwork independently conducted by Ipsos (previously known as Ipsos MORI).

The data in this report is based on 3,394 interviews conducted with Child Maintenance Service (CMS) customers who had contact with the service between April 2021 and March 2022. This report presents data on overall customer satisfaction as well as results from survey questions that map to 4 Customer Experience Drivers:

• Get it Right
• Make it Easy
• Communicate Clearly
• Professional and Supportive.

About the Child Maintenance Service

CMS helps separated families to make financial choices to provide for their children when needed. Child maintenance is an arrangement between parents to cover the child’s living costs when one parent no longer lives with them. Parents use CMS to arrange child maintenance if they do not want to contact the other parent themselves, and many have tried family-based arrangements before deciding to use CMS. CMS is unique in that there are two customers for each case (a Receiving Parent and a Paying Parent), often with an opposing position about their maintenance arrangement. This means that, in many instances, when a positive result for one customer is achieved, the other customer may be less satisfied.

Methodology

CES replaced the previous Claimant Service and Experience Survey (CSES) in 2019 and CMS customers were included in the survey from this point onwards.

Sample

CES is a survey of customers who have had recent contact with CMS, rather than all CMS customers. The sample includes parents who have been in contact with the service during each three-month quarter to either make a new application, report a change of circumstances, or because of arrears. ‘Contact’ includes any time a customer has phoned, written a letter, emailed, filled in an online form, used the Child Maintenance online portal, or otherwise got in touch with CMS. Customers are also included in the sample if they were contacted by CMS through any of these methods. For the contact to be identified and the customer included in the overall survey population, the contact needs to have triggered a change in CMS administrative data during the three-month quarter.

A quota sample design is used to meet minimum interview targets for each parent type and contact reason, with a random sample of CMS customers drawn from the population to meet these quotas. Weighting is then applied to the data so that findings are representative of the survey population: data is weighted by age, gender, length of service use, and contact reason.

Fieldwork

The survey moved to a mixed-mode online and telephone approach from 2019 with fieldwork conducted quarterly with CMS customers. The data in this annual report is based on interviews completed with 3,394 CMS customers who had contact with the service between April 2021 and March 2022.

Main findings

CMS respondents were asked how satisfied they were about the service they had received. It is important when considering the satisfaction of these customers to note that CMS is unique in that there are two customers for each case, often with an opposing position about their maintenance arrangement. This means that, in many instances, when a positive result for one customer is achieved, the other customer may be less satisfied. This can include, for example, where enforcement action is taken to secure child maintenance, where collect and pay arrangements are implemented, and where payments and liability are calculated based on known circumstances. Parents often contact CMS at a time where their personal relationships are strained and they may have a poor quality or non-existent relationship with the other parent. Many have tried family-based arrangements before deciding to use CMS.

These circumstances of CMS customers, particularly for arrears customers, mean that they may not necessarily be expected to have high levels of satisfaction.

Overall satisfaction

• Overall CMS customer satisfaction was 35%
• 45% of Receiving Parents and 24% of Paying Parents were satisfied with services provided by CMS
• 54% of New customers, 31% of Change of Circumstances customers, and 26% of Arrears customers were satisfied.

Results by Customer Experience Driver

This section of the report is structured around 4 Customer Experience Drivers:

• Get it Right
• Make it Easy
• Communicate Clearly
• Professional and Supportive.

The questions presented below have been selected on the basis that they have the best coverage of survey respondents, as some questions are only asked to particular customer groups.

Get it Right

• 43% of customers agreed that CMS staff did what they said they would
• 44% of customers agreed that CMS staff provided them with accurate information
• 55% of New customers were satisfied with the time it took CMS to tell them the outcome of their application.

Make it Easy

• 68% of customers who used GOV.UK reported that it was easy to find all the information they needed
• 55% of customers found the process of making a new application or reporting a change of circumstances easy
• 34% of customers reported that they did not have to contact CMS more than once to explain the same information
• 43% of customers reported that when they were first in touch with CMS, they were able to get the information they needed the first time they tried.

Communicate Clearly

• 47% of customers agreed that the communication they received from CMS was easy to understand
• 44% of customers agreed they had a good understanding of what would happen next during the application process/when reporting a change of circumstances
• 61% of New customers reported that CMS provided them with timescales for processing the decision around their application
• 60% of New customers reported that the outcome of their application was explained with enough detail to allow them to understand CMS’s decision Professional and Supportive
• 52% of customers agreed that CMS staff handled their request professionally
• 45% of customers agreed that CMS staff understood their needs
• 39% of customers agreed that CMS tailored services to their personal circumstances.

Customer characteristics

The following section explores overall customer satisfaction by age, gender, ethnicity, and whether customers reported having a long-term health condition.

Age

• Customers aged 16 to 24 had higher overall satisfaction (51%) than customers in older age groups (ranging from 29 to 38%)
• These differences (between the 16 to 24 age group and each of the 25+ groups) are statistically significant. Those aged 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 were also statistically more likely to report being satisfied compared to those aged 45 to 54
• However, the base size for the age group 16 to 24 is low so this result should be treated with caution.

Gender

• 44% of women were satisfied overall compared to 25% of men, which is a statistically significant difference. This difference is because male CMS customers are more likely to be Paying Parents, for whom overall satisfaction is lower.

Ethnicity

• Customers who preferred not to disclose their ethnicity were the least satisfied at 21%. Over half of Asian/Asian British customers were satisfied (54%) which is similar to levels of satisfaction amongst Black/African/Caribbean/ Black British customers (52%). Satisfaction was lower for those belonging to the White ethnic group (34%) and the Other/Mixed/Multiple ethnicities group (31%)
• The difference between the Asian/Asian British and Black/African/Caribbean/ Black British groups, and the White and Other/Mixed/Multiple ethnicities groups, are statistically significant.

Long-term health conditions

• Customers who reported having any long-term health conditions had similar levels of satisfaction to those with no health conditions. Those with both physical and mental health conditions were less satisfied at 27%
• The differences in satisfaction between the group with both physical and mental health conditions and all other groups are statistically significant.

Long-term health condition profile

• 7% of customers reported having only a physical health condition(s); 15% reported having only a mental health condition(s), and 8% reported having both physical and mental health conditions.

Digital propensity

• 96% of customers reported they could access the internet, either at home or elsewhere
• Although Receiving Parents (96%) and Paying Parents (95%) both reported high levels of internet access, the difference between them is statistically significant
• 83% of customers reported that, if it had been available, they could have accessed government services using the internet without help. A further 7% of customers could have accessed government services online with help
• The difference between Receiving Parents who said they could access government services using the internet without help (85%) and Paying Parents (80%) is statistically significant.