Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions services
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1. Main facts and figures
- in 2016/17, White British claimants were the most likely to be satisfied with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) services (87%) out of all ethnic groups, while claimants from the Other ethnic group were least likely to be satisfied (81%)
- from 2015/16 to 2016/17, the percentage of White British claimants who were satisfied with DWP services rose from 85% to 87%
- in the same period, the percentage of Other White claimants who were satisfied with DWP services rose from 79% to 86%
Things you need to know
The data collected through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Claimant Service and Experience Survey is used to make generalisations about the total population.
Keep in mind when making comparisons between ethnic groups that all survey estimates are subject to a degree of uncertainty. This is because they are based on a sample of the population. The degree of uncertainty is greater when the number of respondents is small, so it will be highest for ethnic minority groups.
The commentary for this data only includes reliable, or ‘statistically significant’, findings.
Findings are statistically significant when we can be confident that they can be repeated, and reflect the total population rather than just the survey sample.
Specifically, the statistical tests used mean we can be confident that if we carried out the same survey on different random samples of the population, 19 times out of 20 we would get similar findings.
The commentary has focused on findings based on subgroups of at least 100 people to ensure that we report reliable findings.
All surveys carry the risk of biased results if some types of people were less likely to respond than others. To compensate for this, the responses to this survey have been weighted so they better reflect characteristics of the target population. For more about weighting, see the 'Methodology' section.
Satisfaction figures are estimates based on respondents who have had recent contact with DWP. This means they may not reflect the whole claimant population. Keep in mind too that percentages may not add up to 100%, due to rounding.
What the data measures
This data measures the level of satisfaction of claimants who have had recent contact with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
A ‘claimant’ is someone who gets disability benefits, out-of-work benefits or a State Pension.
The DWP Claimant Service and Experience Survey is held every 3 months, and around 15,500 claimants are interviewed each year. They are selected randomly from all claimants who, in the previous 2 to 3 months have had contact with DWP (for example, they may have made a new claim, or have contacted DWP about a change of circumstances for an existing claim).
Claimants are asked how satisfied they were with the service they received, and choose a response from a 4-point scale which goes from ‘very satisfied’ to ‘very dissatisfied’. Their answers are grouped together to show the percentage of claimants who were satisfied ('fairly satisfied' or 'very satisfied') and the percentage who were dissatisfied ('very dissatisfied' or 'fairly dissatisfied').
The ethnic categories used in this data
For this data, the number of people surveyed (the ‘sample size’) was too small to draw any firm conclusions about specific ethnic categories. Therefore, the data is broken down into the following groups:
- Asian/Asian British
- Black/African/Caribbean/Black British
- Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups
- White British
- White Other
- Other ethnic group
Previously the data included an ‘unreported’ ethnic category made up of people whose ethnicity was unknown or who refused to answer. This has been removed from the analysis because of unreliable fluctuations in the data.
2. Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions services by ethnicity
| 2015/16 | 2016/17 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | 2015/16 Very or fairly satisfied (%) | 2015/16 Very or fairly dissatisfied (%) | 2016/17 Very or fairly satisfied (%) | 2016/17 Very or fairly dissatisfied (%) |
| Asian | 85 | 14 | 86 | 13 |
| Black | 83 | 15 | 85 | 13 |
| Mixed | 82 | 16 | 82 | 17 |
| White | ||||
| White British | 85 | 14 | 87 | 12 |
| White other | 79 | 18 | 86 | 13 |
| Other | 74 | 21 | 81 | 17 |
| Unknown | 14 | 27 | N/A* | N/A* |
Download table data for ‘Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions services by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions services by ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions services Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions services by ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
- in 2016/17, claimants from the Mixed (82%) and Other (81%) ethnic groups were least likely out of all ethnic groups to be satisfied with Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) services
- in the same period, claimants from the White British (87%) ethnic group were most likely to be satisfied with DWP services
- from 2015/16 to 2016/17, the Other White ethnic group saw the largest annual increase in the percentage of claimants who were satisfied with DWP services, from 79% to 86% (7 percentage points)
3. Methodology
The population sampled is made up of claimants who have had contact with DWP within the previous 3 months. It does not include everyone who has ever been a claimant. The survey is carried out quarterly across the financial year, and interviews about 15,500 claimants per year (about 4,000 every 3 months). The DWP Claimant Service and Experience Survey results are ‘weighted’ to compensate for different response rates between different groups of respondents, so that the findings fairly represent the range of disability and out-of-work benefit claimants, as well as pension claimants.
The satisfaction measure is derived from survey responses to a single question in the survey, which is then aggregated to provide an overall measure of satisfaction.
Suppression rules and disclosure control
For data quality reasons, it is Department for Work and Pensions policy to suppress any values based on fewer than 40 responses.
Rounding
Percentages are rounded to 0 decimal places. However, gaps and differences between figures have been calculated on unrounded data. Percentages have been rounded up if greater than or equal to 0.5, and rounded down if less than 0.5 of a percentage point.
Estimates based on survey responses are subject to sampling error.
4. Data sources
Source
DWP Claimant Service and Experience Survey (CSES)
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
Official statistics
Publisher
Department for Work and Pensions
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The Claimant Satisfaction and Experience Survey (CSES) is used to measure and report on aspects of claimants' satisfaction and experience in their recent contact with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
5. Download the data
This file contains data for the year 2016/17. This is the latest data available. This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, value
This file contains data for the years 2014/15 to 2015/16. The file contains the following:measure, ethnicity, year, value, denominator, numerator