Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions services
Published
Last updated 10 October 2018 - see all updates
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1. Main facts and figures
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in 2015/16, Asian and White British claimants were more likely to be satisfied with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) services (85%), while claimants from the Other ethnic group were least likely to be satisfied (74%)
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from 2014/15 to 2015/16, the percentage of Black claimants who were satisfied with DWP services rose from 75% to 83%
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in the same period, the percentage of White British claimants who were satisfied with DWP services rose from 83% to 85%
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new data has been published for the period 2016/17 – this data isn’t currently reflected in the charts, tables and commentary on this page, but you can get a CSV file with the latest figures if you download the data
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 Methodology and type of data.
Satisfaction figures are estimates based on respondents who have had recent contact with DWP. This means they may not reflect the whole claimant population. Bear in mind too that percentages may not add up to 100%, due to rounding and the way some participants answer the question. For example, some survey participants may have incorrectly given more than one answer or forgotten to answer the question, which means their responses were not included.
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 16,000 claimants are interviewed each year. They are selected randomly from all claimants who, in the previous 3 months, have either 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 offered a 4-point scale to reply, 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 5 broad groups:
- Asian/Asian British
- Black/African/Caribbean/Black British
- Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups
- White British
- White Other
- Other ethnic group
For 2015/16, the data includes an 'unreported' ethnic category made up of people whose ethnicity was unknown or who refused to answer. The unreported category was not used in 2014/15.
2. Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) services by ethnicity
| 2014/15 | 2015/16 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | 2014/15 Very or fairly satisfied (%) | 2014/15 Very or fairly dissatisfied (%) | 2015/16 Very or fairly satisfied (%) | 2015/16 Very or fairly dissatisfied (%) |
| Asian | 84 | 15 | 85 | 14 |
| Black | 75 | 22 | 83 | 15 |
| Mixed | 82 | 17 | 82 | 16 |
| White British | 83 | 16 | 85 | 14 |
| White other | 82 | 15 | 79 | 18 |
| Other | 73 | 23 | 74 | 21 |
| Unknown | not collected | not collected | 14 | 27 |
Download table data for ‘Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) services by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) services by ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions services Customer satisfaction with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) services by ethnicity Summary
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in 2015/16, White Other (79%) and Other (74%) ethnic group claimants were least likely to be satisfied with Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) services compared to other ethnic groups
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in the same period, White British and Asian claimants (both 85%) were most likely to be satisfied with DWP services
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Black claimants saw the largest annual increase in the percentage who were satisfied with DWP services, from 75% in 2014/15 to 83% in 2015/16 (8 percentage points)
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White Other claimants saw the largest annual decrease in the percentage who were satisfied with DWP services, from 82% in 2014/15 to 79% in 2015/16 (3 percentage points)
3. Methodology
The population sampled is not the claimant base but rather those claimants who have had recent contact with DWP. The survey is carried out quarterly across the financial year, and interviews about 16,000 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 overall measures of satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
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.
Further technical information
Weighting was applied to the data to ensure the survey respondents were representative of the population for which estimates were being generated.
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 claimant's 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 years 2014/15 to 2015/16. This is the data used in the charts, tables and commentary shown on this page. The file contains the following:measure, ethnicity, year, value, denominator, numerator
This file contains data for the year 2016/17. This is the latest data available, but does not reflect the figures shown in the charts, tables and commentary on this page. This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, value