Research and analysis

Summary: DWP Customer Experience Survey: Child Maintenance Service 2023 to 2024

Updated 21 November 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 2,280 interviews conducted with Child Maintenance Service (CMS) customers who had contact with the service between April 2023 and March 2024. This report presents data on overall customer satisfaction as well as results from survey questions that map to four Customer Experience Drivers: Get it Right; Make it Easy; Communicate Clearly; and 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 or report a change of circumstances. ‘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 both parent types and contact reasons, 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 2,280 CMS customers who had contact with the service between April 2023 and March 2024.

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 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 mean that they may not necessarily be expected to have high levels of satisfaction.

Overall satisfaction

• Overall CMS customer satisfaction was 39 per cent
• 47 per cent of Receiving Parents and 31 per cent of Paying Parents were satisfied with services provided by CMS
• 53 per cent of New customers and 29 per cent of Change of Circumstances customers were satisfied.

Results by Customer Experience Driver

This section of the report is structured around four Customer Experience Drivers: Get it Right; Make it Easy; Communicate Clearly; and 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

• 48 per cent of customers agreed that CMS staff did what they said they would
• 48 per cent of customers agreed that CMS staff provided them with accurate information
• 57 per cent of New customers were satisfied with the time it took CMS to tell them the outcome of their application
• 44 per cent of Receiving Parents agreed that CMS made payments when they said they would
• 46 per cent of Receiving Parents agreed that CMS paid them the amount they said they would.

Make it Easy

• 76 per cent of customers who used GOV.UK reported that it was easy to find all the information they needed
• 57 per cent of customers found the process of making a new application or reporting a change of circumstances easy
• 49 per cent 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
• 35 per cent of customers reported that they did not have to contact CMS more than once to explain the same information
• 48 per cent of customers agreed that it was easy to use CMS.

Communicate Clearly

• 45 per cent of customers agreed that CMS communicated clearly with them
• 50 per cent of customers agreed they had a good understanding of what would happen next during the application process/when reporting a change of circumstances
• 67 per cent of New customers agreed that CMS provided them with timescales for processing the decision around their application
• 56 per cent of New customers reported that decisions about their application were clearly explained.

Professional and Supportive

• 57 per cent of customers agreed that CMS staff handled their request professionally
• 47 per cent of customers agreed that CMS staff understood their needs
• 37 per cent 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 (56 per cent) than customers in older age groups (ranging from 34 to 47 per cent). The differences between the 16 to 24 age group and each of the 35+ groups are statistically significant. However, some of the base sizes for these groups are low so these results should be treated with caution.

Gender

• 47 per cent of women were satisfied overall compared to 32 per cent of men, which is a statistically significant difference. This is because male CMS customers are more likely to be Paying Parents, for whom overall satisfaction is lower.

Ethnicity

• Satisfaction was highest for those identifying as Asian/Asian British at 60 per cent. It was lowest amongst those who preferred not to disclose their ethnicity at 20 per cent
• The differences between the Asian/Asian British group and the White group (38 per cent), and between the White group and the Black/African/Caribbean/ Black British group (50 per cent) are statistically significant. However, some of the base sizes for these groups are low so these results should be treated with caution.

Long-term health conditions

• There are no statistically significant differences between satisfaction levels for customers who reported having a physical health condition(s) (36 per cent), a mental health condition(s) (41 per cent), both physical and mental health conditions (42 per cent), and those reporting no health condition (40 per cent)
• Satisfaction was lowest for those who preferred not to disclose whether or not they had health conditions in the survey, at 35 per cent.

Long-term health condition profile

• Seven per cent of customers reported having only a physical health condition(s); 15 per cent reported having only a mental health condition(s); and eight per cent reported having both physical and mental health conditions.

Digital propensity

• 93 per cent of customers stated they could access the internet, either at home or elsewhere
• Although Receiving Parents (95 per cent) and Paying Parents (92 per cent) both reported high levels of internet access, the difference between them is statistically significant
• 81 per cent of customers reported that, if it had been available, they could have accessed government services using the internet without help. A further six per cent could have accessed government services online with help
• The difference between Receiving Parents who said they could access without help (84 per cent) and Paying Parents (77 per cent) is statistically significant.