Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Safe Room Access FRS and HBAI data Safe Room access datasets for the Family Resources Survey (FRS), Households Below Average Income (HBAI) and Pensioners' Incomes (PI) data are available as an alternative to the versions available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) (see FRS series and SNs 5828 and SN 8503 respectively).   The Safe Room access data are only available to access at the UK Data Archive's Safe Room at the University of Essex, Colchester. In order to obtain permission to use the Safe Room version, prospective users will need to fulfil requirements additional to those associated with standard EUL datasets, starting with the completion of an extra application form to demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the extra, more detailed variables. Safe Room access users must also complete face-to-face training and agree to the Secure Access User Agreement and Licence Compliance Policy (see 'Access' section below); and complete a Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) check.  Full details of the application requirements will be provided to users when they have placed an order for access to the data and are available from Guidance on applying for the Family Resources Survey: Secure Access. Users are encouraged to download and check the EUL versions of the data prior to ordering the Safe Room access version.  Because the FRS is the main source of data used by HBAI and PI, the Safe Room versions of the HBAI data and Pensioners' Incomes data, have been included with the FRS. Further information about the FRS/HBAI/PI can be found on the FRS, HBAI and PI pages on the GOV.UK website.  FRS The FRS aims to support the monitoring of the welfare and benefit systems; and support the costing and modelling of changes to state benefits.  The FRS is cross-sectional with a single household interview.  It does not track individuals over time (see instead Income Dynamics for longitudinal data from Understanding Society, the successor to the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS).   The Safe Room access version of the FRS contains unrounded data and a small number of extra variables not available on the standard EUL versions, including the following:   Household Table: BRMA, CAPVAL (for NI), CTAMT, GROSSCT, HHAGEGR2, HAAGEGRP, IMD_E, IMD_W, IMD_S, IMD_NI, IMDE, IMDS, IMDW, IMDN (all indices of multiple deprivation), LAC (old local authority marker, to 2019), LAUA (new local authority marker, 2020 on), LSOA, LONDON, NICOUN (for NI LA), NIDPND (for NI poundage), OAC (ONS' area classification), SSTRTREG, URINDEW, URINDS, URBNI (all urban/rural indicators).Benunit Table: BUAGEGRP, BUAGEGR2.Adult Table: AGE, C2ORIGN, CITIZEN (passport), CITIZEN2, CORIGN (country of origin), CORIGOTH, DOBMONTH, DOBYEAR, IAGEGRP, IAGEGR2, MS (marital status), W1 (widows), NINANID4, NINANID5, NINANID6 (perceived national identity), NIREL2, PENFLAG (over SPA or not), POLLOPIN, RELIGENW, RELIGSC (religion), SIDQN (sexual identity), TYPEED (type of education).Child Table: C2ORIGN, CITIZEN, CITIZEN2, CORIGN, CORIGOTH, DOBMONTH, DOBYEAR, MS, TYPEED. Users should note that the variables listed may not be included for all FRS years. A full list of variables can be found in the UKDA Data Dictionaries in the Documentation section, and guidance on the latest year's contents can be found in the Hierarchical Full Listing file. FRS and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had a notable impact on FRS 2020-21, with after-effects also to the 2021-22 survey year:  Fieldwork operations for the FRS were rapidly changed in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the introduction of national lockdown restrictions. The established face-to-face interviewing approach employed on the FRS was suspended and replaced with telephone interviewing for the whole of the 2020-21 survey year; this continued throughout 2021-22.This change impacted both the size and composition of the achieved sample. This shift in mode of interview was accompanied by a substantial reduction in the number of interviews achieved: just over 10,000 interviews were achieved in 2021-22 and over 16,000 in 2021-22, compared with 19,000 to 20,000 in a typical FRS year. It was also recognised that older, more affluent participants were over-sampled. The achieved sample was particularly small for April 2020, and was more unbalanced both years. The grossing weight remains GROSS4. While every effort was made to address additional biases identified (with alterations to the grossing weight construct), some residual bias will remain. Please see the FRS 2020-21  Background Information and Methodology document for more information and also the 2021-22 publication at GOV.UK. The FRS team published a  technical report for the 2020-21 survey, to give a full assessment of the impact of the pandemic on the statistics. In line with the Statistics Code of Practice, this is designed to assist users with interpreting the data and to aid transparency over decisions and data quality issues.   The FRS team are seeking users' feedback. Please send any feedback directly to the FRS Team Inbox: team.frs@dwp.gov.uk   HBAI The 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 (that is, to allow comparisons of the living standards of different types of households, 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 of measures 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 for the HBAI is the FRS. The Safe Room access version of the HBAI comprises unrounded data and the extra variable CTLIAB (Amount of council tax the household is liable for). Users should note that many variables across the files do not include full variable or value labels. This information can be found easily in HBAI Harmonised Data Variables Guide in the documentation.  PI The Pensioners' Incomes (PI) series data from 2007/08 onwards is also included. The PI series carries out a few extra steps beyond the FRS and HBAI data to derive pension income variables. Unlike the standard EUL versions, the ages of the head of household and spouse have not been top-coded at 80 years in the Safe Room access version.  Documentation The study documentation presented in the Documentation section includes data dictionaries for all years, and other documentation for the latest year of the FRS, HBAI and PI only, due to available space. Documentation for previous years is provided alongside the data for access and is also available upon request.   Latest edition information For the 13th edition (May 2023) FRS, HBAI, and PI data and documentation for 2021/22 have been added to the study. 

Main Topics:

FRS Household characteristics (age, family composition, tenure); some spending, with housing (rent or details of mortgage); household bills including Council Tax, buildings and contents insurance, water and sewerage rates.  Receipt of state support from all state benefits, including Universal Credit and Tax Credits; educational level and grants and loans; children in education; care, both those receiving care and those caring for others; childcare; occupation, employment, self-employment and earnings/wage details, including director dividend if received; income tax payments and refunds; National Insurance contributions; pension contributions; earnings from odd jobs. Doctors and dentists are separately identified from 2021-22. Health and disability, restrictions on work, children's health; income from personal or occupational/company pension schemes; other income from savings and investments, trusts, royalties or allowances, and other sources; children's earnings.  Material deprivation, household food security (from 2019-20) and household food bank usage (from 2021-22). HBAI Information on potential living standards in the United Kingdom as determined by disposable income. PI Derived pension income variables.

Multi-stage stratified random sample

Compilation/Synthesis

Face-to-face interview: Computer-assisted (CAPI/CAMI)