09 October 2008 – Publication of DWP Research Report 532: The Pension Service Customer Survey 2007
Research published today reports on customers’ experiences of, attitudes towards and satisfaction with The Pension Service (TPS). This research was undertaken prior to the merger of TPS with the Disability and Carers’ Service.
- Customer satisfaction with TPS overall, and on the basis of customers’ most recent enquiry, has remained stable since the 2005 survey. Overall satisfaction is 85 per cent compared with 84 per cent in 2005, and satisfaction with the most recent enquiry is 80 per cent compared with 79 per cent in 2005 - these figures do not represent a statistically significant increase from previous years.
- The research shows that dealing with enquiries promptly and providing correct information remain important service elements and have the largest influence on customers’ dissatisfaction.
- TPS performed best on staff-related service delivery, for example, ‘treating customers with respect’. Customers felt that the best thing about TPS was the ‘quality of the people’.
- Since 2005 there has been a large increase in the proportion of customers reporting that they had used Local Service. This reflects an increase in home visits by Local Service to potentially eligible customers in support of the Pension Credit take-up campaign throughout the 2006 to 2007 period.
- Awareness of TPS as the organisation responsible for information about the State Pension has continued to increase, while fewer customers refer to ‘legacy brands’ and fewer customers do not know where to go for information about the State Pension or related benefits.
Notes to Editors
- This research is published as part of the DWP Research Report Series as Research Report 532: The Pension Service Customer Survey 2007. It is available at
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5 - The authors are Nicholas Howat, Oliver Norden and Erica Garnett at BMRB Social Research.
- The Pension Service Customer Survey is a biennial survey of TPS customers (respondents who contacted TPS during one week in September 2007 were surveyed). Over 2,000 customers were surveyed in their homes between December 2007 and February 2008 (before the merger with the Disability and Carer’s Service).
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