Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data presents information on living standards in the UK, based on household income measures for the financial year. HBAI uses equivalised disposable household income as a proxy for living standards, in order to allow comparisons of the living standards of different types of households (that is, income is adjusted to take into account variations in the size and composition of the households in a process known as equivalisation). A key assumption made in HBAI is that all individuals in the household benefit equally from the combined income of the household. This enables the total equivalised income of the household to be used as a proxy for the standard of living of each household member. In line with international best practice, the income measures used in HBAI are subject to several statistical adjustments and, as such, are not always directly relatable to income amounts as they might be understood by people on a day-to-day basis. These adjustments, however, allow comparison over time and across households of different sizes and compositions on a consistent basis. HBAI uses variants of CPI inflation when estimating how incomes are changing in real terms over time. The main source of data used in this study is the Family Resources Survey (FRS), which is a continuous cross-sectional survey. The FRS normally has a sample of over 19,000 UK households. The use of survey data means that HBAI estimates are subject to uncertainty, which can affect how changes should be interpreted, especially in the short term. Analysis of geographies below the regional level is not recommended from this data. Further information, along with the latest publication, can be found on the gov.uk HBAI webpage. The HBAI team want to provide user-friendly datasets and clearer documentation so please contact team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk if you have any suggestions or feedback on the new harmonised datasets and documentation. An earlier HBAI study, Institute for Fiscal Studies Households Below Average Income Dataset, 1961-1991, is held under SN 3300. Latest Edition Information (methodological revisions) For the 17th edition (March 2023) data and documentation for 2021/22 were added to the study. Main data back to 1994/95 have been updated to 2021 prices. Using the HBAI filesUsers should note that either 7-Zip or a recent version of WinZip is needed to unzip the HBAI download zip files, due to their size. The inbuilt Windows compression software will not handle them correctly. HBAI versions The HBAI datasets are available in two versions at the UKDS: 1. End User (Anonymised) Datasets: These datasets contain no names, addresses, telephone numbers, bank account details, NINOs or any personal details that can be considered as disclosive under the terms of the 'ONS Disclosure Control'. Changes made to the datasets are as follows: All ages above 80 are instead top-coded to 80 years of age. The variable for the amount of Council Tax liability for the household and pensioner flags for the head and spouse have been removed. All amount variables have been rounded to the nearest £1. A very small number of large households (with 10 or more individuals) have been removed from the dataset. 2. Safe Room Datasets: These HBAI datasets are available without the above restrictions. Safe Room Access datasets for HBAI are held under SN 7196, Family Resources Survey, Households Below Average Income and Pensioners' Income: Safe Room Access. The Safe Room data are currently only available to UK HE/FE applicants and for access at the UK Data Archive's Safe Room at the University of Essex, Colchester. Prospective users of the Safe Room version of the FRS/HBAI/PI will need to fulfil additional requirements beyond those associated with the EUL datasets. Full details of the application requirements are available from Guidance on applying for the Family Resources Survey: Secure Access.
Main Topics:
HBAI provides information on potential living standards in the United Kingdom as determined by net (equivalised) disposable income and allows for changes in income patterns to be analysed over time. Labelling of variables Users should note that many variables across the files do not include full variable or value labels. This information can be found easily in the documentation - see the Harmonised Data Variables Guide.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Compilation/Synthesis
