Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The DSS/PSI Programme of Research into Low-Income Families (PRILIF) studied low-income families with dependent children. The study was conducted by the Department of Social Security (DSS) (now the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)), and the Policy Studies Institute (PSI). The PRILIF series began in 1991, when a nationally-representative survey of low-income families was undertaken to study the effects of Family Credit on labour market opportunities. The series finished in 2001, and comprised seven waves, deposited at the UK Data Archive (UKDA) in three parts:DSS/PSI Programme of Research into Low-Income Families, 1991-1995 (held under SN 3977)DSS/PSI Programme of Research into Low-Income Families, 1996 and 1998 (SN 4425)DSS/PSI Programme of Research into Low-Income Families, 2001 (SN 5406)The PRILIF series examined five main policy issues:how lone parents could improve their incomes, combining paid work, benefits and maintenance paymentsthe effectiveness of child supportthe failure of some families to claim their benefit entitlementthe persistent dfficulties experienced by some families, especially the lowest paid couples, in maintaining themselves in paid jobsthe wider effects of the use of income-tested in-work benefits on incentives to workThe main focus of the research was on families on the margins of work and concerned the influence of different sources of income (benefits, maintenance and earnings) on their labour market participation and family welfare. A similar survey series, the Families and Children Study (held under SN 4427), is also conducted by the DWP. More information on the PRILIF study, including details of publications, may be found on the PSI web site.
Main Topics:
The programme consists of a 1991 'Baseline' survey of all Britain's low-income families which has continued in subsequent years in a series of follow-up studies. Some of these follow-up studies are longitudinal or 'cohort' studies, re-interviewing 1991 respondents. Others are repeat cross-section studies, asking similar questions of new nationally-representative samples. File 1 is an initial postal sift survey, carried out in 1991, of 14,500 Child Benefit Recipients. File 2 is the 1991 Baseline Survey of Low-income Families - an interview follow-up survey of 1,400 low-income families and a top-up interview survey of 800 families receiving Family Credit living in the same primary sampling units. File 4 contains 1992 data from postal questionnaires sent to representative samples of GB families (child benefit recipients), to identify those who were lone parents. File 6 contains the 1993 Cross-section Survey of Lone Parents. File 7 is a follow-up interview survey in 1993 of couples eligible for Family Credit in 1991, but not claiming. File 8 is the 1993 Follow-up Survey of the lowest-income couples - a longitudinal follow-up survey of the lowest paid couples interviewed in 1991 who at that time had experience of claiming both Family Credit and Income Support. File 9 comprises data from a postal follow-up of the 1993 respondents carried out six months later. File 11 contains 1994 data from postal questionnaires sent to representative samples of GB families (child benefit recipients), to identify those who were lone parents. File 12 contains the 1994 Cross-section Survey of Lone Parents. File 13 contains interviews with 1002 families who left Family Credit and had not renewed their claim six months later. File 14 contains the 1991-1995 Lone Parent 'Cohort' Study - an initial stock sample of lone parents in 1991 plus longitudinal follow-up interview surveys in 1993, 1994 and 1995 and a postal survey in 1992. There are no files 3, 5 and 10.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
See documentation for further details.
Face-to-face interview
Postal survey
Self-completion
