Social Security Scotland: insights research findings to June 2019

2. Key Findings

• The insights programme has had feedback from clients on their experiences of engaging with the organisation during the period September 2018 to June 2019. 
• During this period Social Security Scotland received approximately, 74,400 contacts by phone. Of these, approximately 39,000 were in relation to Best Start Grant, 27,300 were in relation to Carer’s Allowance Supplement and 8,100 were general enquiries.
• Over 500 clients left ratings on their experience of engaging with the Social Security Scotland telephony service. Of those, 86% felt their call was answered quickly, 77% felt that they got what they needed from the call, and 84% were happy with the overall service they received.
• Over 1,500 clients left ratings following paper, online and telephony applications for Best Start Grant. Of paper applicants who left a rating, 91% rated the service as Very good or Good. For online applicants, 97% of those who left a rating rated the service as Very good or Good. For telephony applicants, 100% of those who left a rating rated the service as Very good or Good.
• A subset of clients left feedback in the form of open text comments following applications for Best Start Grant. The majority of comments (89% for telephony applications and 78% for online applications) were positive.
• Positive comments fell into three broad categories – applicants finding the form easy to fill in, applicants agreeing with Best Start Grant policy and applicants being happy with the service they received. Commonly used words included: ‘helpful’, ‘simple’, ‘good’, ‘quick’, ‘easy’, ‘great’, ‘clear’ and ‘straight forward’. 
• A smaller proportion of open text comments were negative (1% of telephony and 7% of online open text responses). Negative responses fell into three broad categories – issues with the application form, applicants disagreeing with the Best Start Grant policy and applicants feeling that the wait between applying and getting a response was too long.