Recommendation 5

The Department is too willing to blame low levels of customer satisfaction on CMS customers being difficult to please, despite its own systemic customer service failings. It is disheartening that customer satisfaction is no better now than it was under the failed CSA and that less than half (46%) of customers report they are satisfied with the service they receive. Given that the CMS scheme was 8 Child Maintenance set-up to replace an agency whose customer service was generally considered to be diabolical, it is unacceptable that the Department has not put in place a robust method for objectively assessing whether it is providing a reasonable level of service. In explaining low levels of customer satisfaction, the Department emphasises the challenging nature of its caseload and areas where it has improved its performance, such as payment accuracy. However, CMG receives by far the most complaints, and the most upheld complaints per 1,000 customers (1.15), of any of the Department’s business areas, suggesting fundamental issues with the way it handles customers’ concerns. Despite the large number of complaints upheld, the Department is less likely to uphold complaints relating to child maintenance (around one in three are upheld) than it does for other service areas. It told us this is because of the nature of CMG’s caseload. However, child maintenance accounts for a disproportionately high share of all rejected complaints subsequently investigated and upheld (or partially upheld) by the Department’s Independent Case Examiner, suggesting that the Department may be incorrectly rejecting some complaints. Recommendation: The Department should use its digital transformation to develop performance indicators that enable it to fully understand why customer satisfaction is so low, and target improvement where data suggests there may be an underlying service issue, for example: where high numbers of complaints are upheld. The Department should also, within one year, review Ch