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 Verian Group and NatCen. It builds on and incorporates the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), which began in 1991.

The Understanding Society: Main Survey, Linked Credit Reference Agency (CRA) Dataset, 2009-2021: Secure Access study contains, for study participants who provided consent, a file containing credit histories collected by a Credit Reference Agency (CRA) before being linked to their study records by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).The data in this study can be linked through the pidp variable to one of the main Understanding Society datasets: SN 6614 (End User Licence), SN 6931 (Special Licence) or SN 6676 (Secure Access). Further details on those studies can be found on the Understanding Society series webpage.For all individuals with a valid consent to CRA linkage collected in Wave 10 of Understanding Society, the data file contains detailed information on credit items held by individuals. The monthly dataset that has been linked to the main survey sample covers a period of twelve years (2009-2021). A credit item is a (typically financial) product taken out by an individual. Credit items contained in the CRA data include current accounts, mortgages, credit items (e.g. personal loans, motor finance, credit cards, retail credit and subprime credit such as payday loans) as well as some household bills (e.g. mobile phones, gas and electric bills but not council taxes).See documentation for further details.

Main Topics:

The main topic covered in the data files is information on credit items and their histories, including: current accounts; mortgages; running cards (credit cards and store cards); personal loans; motor finance; retail finance; ‘other running’ (card accounts such as mail order and charge cards); home collected high cost credit (rent to own, logbook loans, home credit, guarantor’s loans); household bill accounts (credit accounts pertaining to household expenses such as electricity, gas, water); telecommunications company credit accounts. See the User Guide for further details.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Compilation/Synthesis