Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.Understanding Society, (UK Household Longitudinal Study), which began in 2009, is conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex and the survey research organisations Kantar Public and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991.

The Understanding Society Spending Study 1 was conducted by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, in collaboration with Kantar Worldpanel. The purpose of the study was to test ways in which mobile technologies could improve the measurement of expenditure data in Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Adult sample members of the Understanding Society Innovation Panel (see SN 6849) were invited to download a spending app on their smartphone or tablet and to use that to scan shopping receipts or report spending directly in the app for one month. At the end of each week, sample members were invited to an end-of-week survey; at the end of the five weeks, they were invited to an end-of-project survey. Data were collected between October 2016 and January 2017. Further information about the Spending Study, including links to publications and documents, can be found on the ISER Understanding household finance through better measurement webpage.

Main Topics:

Expenditure data

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Mobile app-based data collection