Research and analysis

Summary: Customer Experience Survey, Benefit Customers 2024 to 2025

Published 25 September 2025

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

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 9,029 interviews conducted with benefit customers who had contact with DWP between April 2024 and March 2025. The survey covers eight benefits:

• State Pension
• Pension Credit
• Attendance Allowance
• Carer’s Allowance
• Disability Living Allowance for Children
• Personal Independence Payment
• Employment and Support Allowance
• Universal Credit

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.

Methodology

Sample

CES is a survey of customers who have had recent contact with DWP, rather than all DWP customers. When CES replaced the previous Claimant Service and Experience Survey (CSES) in 2019, the sample design was revised: as the Universal Credit rollout replaced legacy benefits, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support customers were no longer included. CES covers the following eight benefits: State Pension (SP); Pension Credit (PC); Attendance Allowance (AA); Carer’s Allowance (CA); Disability Living Allowance for Children (DLAc); Personal Independence Payment (PIP); Employment and Support Allowance (ESA); and Universal Credit (UC).

The sample includes benefit customers who have been in contact with DWP during each three-month quarter^{[footnote 1]} to either: make a new claim; report a change of circumstances; or (for UC and ESA customers) attend a Jobcentre appointment. ‘Contact’ includes any time a customer has phoned, written a letter, emailed, visited a Jobcentre, filled in an online form, or used their UC online journal to get in touch with DWP. Customers are also included in the sample if a DWP colleague has contacted them using any of these methods. For the contact to be identified and the customer included in the overall survey population, it needs to have triggered a change in DWP administrative data during the three-month quarter.

A quota sample design is used to meet minimum interview targets for each benefit group and contact reason, with a random sample of 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 claim, contact reason, and benefit type. For UC customers, data is also weighted by UC region.

Fieldwork

When CES replaced the previous CSES, the survey moved to a mixed-mode online and telephone data collection approach. In 2024/25, fieldwork was conducted quarterly. The data in this report is based on 9,029 interviews, conducted with benefit customers who had contact with DWP between April 2024 and March 2025.

Main findings

Overall satisfaction

• Overall customer satisfaction was 87 per cent.
• Overall satisfaction for each benefit was:
  • Universal Credit: 87 per cent
  • Employment and Support Allowance: 77 per cent
  • Personal Independence Payment: 81 per cent
  • Disability Living Allowance for Children: 87 per cent
  • Attendance Allowance: 94 per cent
  • Carer’s Allowance: 91 per cent
  • State Pension: 94 per cent
  • Pension Credit: 90 per cent

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

• 83 per cent of customers agreed that DWP colleagues did what they said they would.
• 80 per cent of customers agreed that DWP colleagues provided them with accurate information.
• 80 per cent of customers were satisfied with the time it took DWP to tell them the outcome of their new claim or change of circumstances.
• 96 per cent of customers agreed that DWP made payments when they said they would.
• 93 per cent of customers agreed that DWP paid them the amount they said they would.
• 76 per cent of customers said they did not experience any problems with their new benefit claim or change of circumstances.

Make it Easy

• 88 per cent of New and Change of Circumstances customers who used GOV.UK reported that it was easy to find all the information they needed.
• 77 per cent of New customers found the process of making a new claim easy. For customers who reported a change of circumstances, 82 per cent found the process easy.
• 88 per cent of UC customers reported that they found their UC online account easy to use.
• 75 per cent of customers reported that when they were first in touch with DWP about their new claim or change of circumstances, they were able to get the information they needed the first time they tried.
• 66 per cent of New and Change of Circumstances customers reported that they did not have to contact DWP more than once to explain the same information.
• 80 per cent of customers agreed that it was easy to use DWP services.
• 76 per cent of customers agreed that it was easy to contact DWP about their benefit claim.

Communicate Clearly

• 81 per cent of customers agreed that DWP communicated clearly with them.
• 80 per cent of customers agreed they had a good understanding of what would happen next during the new claims / change of circumstances / Jobcentre appointment process.
• 76 per cent of New customers reported that DWP told them when they should expect a decision about their benefit eligibility.
• 82 per cent of New customers reported that decisions about their claim were explained clearly.

Professional and Supportive

• 78 per cent of customers agreed that DWP colleagues understood their needs.
• 72 per cent of New and Change of Circumstances customers agreed that DWP tailored services to their personal circumstances.
• 85 per cent of customers agreed that DWP colleagues handled their request professionally.
• 91 per cent of UC and ESA customers (combined) who had a meeting with a DWP work coach were satisfied with the employment support they received.
• 79 per cent of UC customers who had a meeting with a DWP work coach reported that their work coach tailored their claimant commitment 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 66 and older were most likely to report being satisfied (66‑74: 93 per cent; 75+: 91 per cent), although those in the youngest age groups also scored highly (16-24: 90 per cent; 25-34: 89 per cent). Customers aged 35-44 were least likely to be satisfied (83 per cent).

Gender

• Overall satisfaction was 86 per cent for women and 87 per cent for men.

Ethnicity

• Satisfaction scores across ethnicity groups varied little, with Asian/Asian British and White groups being minorly more satisfied (87 per cent) than all others (86 per cent). At 79 per cent, satisfaction was lowest for those who preferred not to disclose their ethnicity in the survey.

Long-term health conditions

• Customers who did not report having any long-term health conditions were more satisfied (91 per cent) than those who reported having physical health condition(s), mental health condition(s), or both.
• Amongst customers who reported having long-term health condition(s), those who had only physical health condition(s) were most likely to report being satisfied (88 per cent), followed by those who had only mental health condition(s) (87 per cent). At 80 per cent, satisfaction was lowest for customers who reported having both physical and mental health conditions.

Long-term health condition profile

• 19 per cent of customers reported having only physical health condition(s), 15 per cent reported having only mental health condition(s), and 25 per cent reported both physical and mental health conditions.

Digital propensity

• 95 per cent of customers reported having access to the internet, either at home or elsewhere.
• 67 per cent of customers reported that, if it had been available, they could have accessed government services using the internet without help. A further 17 per cent of customers could have accessed government services online with help.

1. For DLAc New customers, the sample was extended to include those who had initial contact to make a new claim over a longer period (five months for quarters one to three, and six months for quarter four). This was to ensure a large enough sample size for robust results. However, the sample still only included customers whose claims actually started (after DWP made a decision) during a three-month quarter. ↩