Guidance

Family Resources Survey: release strategy

Updated 27 March 2025

1. Introduction

This release strategy acts as the formal notice of changes to future releases of the Family Resources Survey (FRS) publication.

The strategy highlights the confirmed changes to the FRS questionnaire and dataset, describes the potential release of new statistics within the publication and announces any other developments.

The FRS Release Strategy is not a static document; it will be updated as plans develop, to provide users with details of latest developments.

The development of these statistics follows the Department for Work and Pension’s statistical work programme.

2. Publications based on the FRS

The FRS is the basis for several statistical publications and the changes outlined here will be reflected as necessary in these publications in the future.

Households Below Average Income (HBAI)

This HBAI publication uses household disposable incomes, adjusted for household size and composition, as a proxy for material living standards or, more precisely, for the level of consumption of goods and services that people could attain given the disposable income of the household in which they live.

Pensioners’ Incomes Statistics

The FRS and HBAI datasets are used in the Pensioners’ Incomes Statistics, the Department’s analysis of trends in components and levels of pensioners’ incomes.

Income-Related Benefits: Estimates of Take-Up

The FRS provides information about people’s circumstances, which is used to estimate numbers of people who are not claiming benefits to which they may be entitled. The statistics are based on a combination of administrative and survey data.

Separated Families statistics

Official statistics relating to separated families and their child maintenance arrangements.

Below Average Resources

DWP are developing a new additional poverty measure named ‘Below Average Resources’ (BAR) based on the approach proposed by the Social Metrics Commission (SMC) and using FRS data.

The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) Review of Income-Based Poverty Statistics recommended that the DWP assess how the SMC’s proposals can be implemented to enhance the public value of our statistics. The OSR recognised that a basket of main poverty measures is required to meet varying user needs, but that signposting and coherence between different statistics could be improved to help users navigate the different measures.

Once fully developed, the BAR measure will sit alongside and add value to DWP’s existing poverty related statistics. The BAR approach provides a more expansive view of available resources (both savings and inescapable costs) than the income measurement adopted under HBAI, and includes some methodological changes proposed by the SMC.

The latest Official Statistics in Development publication in the BAR series was published in January 2025. This new publication includes data for the financial year ending 2023 but does not include any substantial changes to the measure compared to the initial publication.

DWP sought user feedback on the new measure through an analytical consultation running from 18 January to 11 April 2024. The consultation response has now been published.

Other government departments

The Department for Communities Northern Ireland uses the FRS to produce similar reports to those from DWP, which are focused on Northern Ireland.

In-depth analysis of FRS-based HBAI data for Scotland can be found in the Scottish Government report on Poverty and income inequality statistics in Scotland.

In-depth analysis of relative income poverty in Wales, based on HBAI data, can be found on the Relative income poverty page of the Welsh Government website, which also has links to material deprivation analysis.

3. User engagement

The FRS team within DWP engages with users in the following ways:

• Questionnaire Consultation

• Data and Publication Quality Assurance Groups

• Expert Advisory Group consultations

• The Family Finance Survey Users conference, run in association with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and UK Data Service (UKDS)

• Responses to Parliamentary Questions and Freedom of Information requests

• Team email – team.frs@dwp.gov.uk for general enquiries

User consultation

Analysts, both within DWP and other government departments such as His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) and His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC); and the devolved administrations are part of our quality assurance group. These expert users have been consulted on changes to the FRS questionnaire, via a well-established Questionnaire Consultation procedure. An assessment of the quality of data that is derived from the survey responses is then conducted with this quality assurance group of subject matter experts.

DWP has established an Expert Advisory Group on Survey-based Income Statistics to support its development work. The purpose of the Group is to provide advice to DWP’s Chief Statistician on:

• plans to implement the integration of administrative data into the FRS and related outputs

• development of new material deprivation measures

• other technical issues as they arise

Members of the Group include frequent users of the FRS and related outputs, including: academic experts, users from third-sector organisations and those providing methodology input from the Office for National Statistics.

4. Changes coming to FRS statistics

Developments in survey year 2024 to 2025

Developments to data collected in survey year 2024 to 2025 are expected to be published in March 2026.

Family Resources Survey (FRS) sample size

The fieldwork target for 2024 to 2025 is for an achieved sample of 20,000 households. Recruitment and retention of sufficient interviewers, across organisations, but particularly at ONS, has continued to be challenging. Consequently, we expect a final achieved sample for 2024 to 2025 of 16,000 households.

Transformative use of DWP administrative data

Where possible, we will replace survey responses for state benefits with information from administrative records. This will go beyond the current approach, which uses administrative records for editing benefit amounts where the respondent has said that they receive state benefits.

Instead, benefit records will be added to the FRS dataset for those who have not reported that they are in receipt, but for whom there is a linked state benefit record in administrative data. As such, this will substantially reduce the underreporting of benefits that is currently seen in the FRS data.

Revised grossing factors for 2024 to 2025  

We will make two changes to our grossing regime:

• bring our grossing into alignment with Census 2021 (2022 for Scotland) population figures

• introduce new control totals for the main DWP benefits to ensure we are better accounting for benefit receipt across the population

Plans to produce a back series of grossing factors

We will produce a single new back series of revised estimates using:

• census-based population data, back to 2012 to 2013

• benefits administrative data, back to 2018 to 2019 (the earliest year for which we have sufficient linking to administrative records)

Given the structural break, we will be reviewing the reference date for the absolute low income measure in HBAI. This is currently 2010 to 2011.

These changes will improve the quality of our analysis of the income distribution and reporting on child poverty. They will bring increased coherence with our reporting on children in low income families. Users of all FRS-based outputs can benefit from these improvements to quality.

Savings and investment bands

In the previous two years Savings and Investment tables [7.9, 7.10, 7.11 and 7.12] showing monetary bands were published as two variations. Those with suffix ‘a’ showed the original savings bands, while those with suffix ‘b’ showed the revised bands, to allow consistency with earlier years for users. From 2024 to 2025 only the new savings bands will be used.

Questionnaire changes approved in questionnaire consultation

Changes on specific topics were approved and implemented in the FRS 2024 to 2025 questionnaire following the annual questionnaire consultation exercise. These focus on specific topics to improve the understanding of respondents’ circumstances, improve data quality through better informed data processing decisions, and to collect information to support future policy analysis.

Subject to evaluation and quality assurance, a decision will be taken on releasing this information in the FRS 2024 to 2025 dataset, inclusion in the main FRS publication on GOV.UK and on the Department’s Stat Xplore online tool.

A brief description of the new questions and approach are given below:

• Marital Status

The GSS harmonisation team have updated their approach to marital status. The questionnaire has been changed accordingly, to harmonise with other major surveys and the Census. 

• Collective Defined Contribution Pensions

Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) pension schemes are being introduced and are likely to become a material source of pension wealth for some individuals in the future. Collecting data on new CDC type pension schemes, will help to show the number of employees participating in these schemes.

• Council Tax

This change improves the efficiency of the survey, by removing unnecessary questions. Instead of asking Council Tax Band at interview, it will be added, using data from the Valuation Office Agency and the Scottish Assessors. Initially, information will be manually added from the VOA and SA websites. An automated read-in, from VOA / SA datasets, has been trialled and is being taken forward as business-as-usual for processing of the 2025 to 2026 survey data. 

Other Council Tax related questions will also be removed from the interview. The answers will instead be imputed during the data validation process, from the ‘Council Tax Band’ variable and responses elsewhere across the survey.  This follows an existing process used by the HBAI team.

• Childcare Attendance

This supplements existing questions asking about childcare attendance, to confirm whether the associated cost is for a typical term-time week or a school holiday. Capturing this additional information reduces the risk of under or overestimating the prevalence and costs of childcare, when used in on-going work to develop “Below Average Resources” (BAR), as an alternative poverty measure and other analysis of childcare.

• Removal of Class 2 National Insurance Contributions (NICs)

The then Chancellor announced, at the Autumn Statement, that from April 2024 self-employed people will no longer be required to pay Class 2 NICs. This section of the questionnaire has therefore been removed. The associated change, reducing the rates of Class 4 NICs payable, will also be taken account of in question instructions and processing of responses.

Developments in survey year 2025 to 2026

Developments to data collected in survey year 2025 to 2026 are expected to be published in March 2027.

Family Resources Survey (FRS) sample size

We are proceeding from April 2025, with a fieldwork target of achieving 20,000 households.

Council Tax Band

In a further development to the removal of the need to ask council tax band at interview, an automated read-in of council tax band, from VOA datasets for England and Wales has been trialled. This will now apply as business-as-usual for processing of the 2025 to 2026 survey data.

Questionnaire changes approved in questionnaire consultation

Changes on specific topics were approved and implemented for the FRS 2025 to 2026 questionnaire following the annual questionnaire consultation exercise. These focus on specific topics to improve the understanding of respondents’ circumstances, improve data quality through better informed data processing decisions, and to collect information to support future policy analysis.

These questions are expected to produce useful data that can be delivered to users through additional variables on the FRS 2025 to 2026 dataset immediately after publication in March 2027. New variables are subject to rigorous quality assurance processes before being released.

A brief description of the new questions and approach are given below:

• Revision to ‘number of food parcels from food banks’ question

We are removing the questions asking for ‘number of food parcels received’ in the last 30 days and 12 months, as this was poorly answered. These have been replaced by a simpler, banded-frequency question for ‘how often parcels received from a food bank’ in the last 12 months, with options such as ‘two or three times in the last year’. This aims to improve our understanding of frequent food bank use (for the purpose of obtaining emergency food) and to help us evaluate changes to food parcel dependence.

• Additional questions on whether a child maintenance arrangement is working

Previously all resident parents were asked how well their child maintenance arrangement is working for them. This question is now also asked to non-resident parents. Additionally, if either the resident parent or the non-resident parent indicates their arrangement is not working, then a follow-up question will ask why not. These changes will allow the Child Maintenance Service to develop a better understanding of the child maintenance landscape in separated families.

5. Other Developments    

Integration of administrative data into the FRS and related outputs 

As outlined in the DWP Statistical Work Programme (section 2.4). The department is committed to transforming its surveys through the integration of administrative data.

A technical report on FRS transformation, with illustrative results for DWP benefits, was published in March 2024. This demonstrates the combined positive effects of replacing survey responses with administrative records, imputation for unlinked respondents, and revised grossing on FRS estimates.

We continue to research the integration of HMRC PAYE and Self-Assessment data, and other administrative sources.

Revised outputs for Education variable EDUCQUAL on historical FRS datasets 

During the investigation of the issues identified with the EDUCQUAL variable it was found that these issues were present for earlier survey years. Work will continue to provide revised outputs for historical FRS and HBAI datasets and an update will be available in due course.

6. Feedback

We welcome feedback.

Lead Statistician: M A Vaughan

Email: team.frs@dwp.gov.uk