Guidance

Family Resources Survey: release strategy

Updated 21 March 2024

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 2023 to 2024 questionnaire and dataset, describes the potential release of new statistics within the publication and announces any other developments, for both 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025.

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 add value and sit alongside HBAI. 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 first Official Statistics in Development publication in this series was published in January 2024.

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
• 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 2023 to 2024

Developments to data collected in survey year 2023 to 2024 are expected to be published in March 2025.

Family Resources Survey (FRS) sample size

Interviews in 2023 to 2024 have been a mix of face-to-face and telephone interviews, but with face-to-face being the preference wherever possible.

It remains the case that gaining household response has continued to be challenging. The primary challenge comes from recruitment and retention of sufficient interviewers. Consequently, we expect a final achieved sample for the year of around 17,000 households, rather than the 20,000 households originally intended.

Plans to use 2021 Census outputs for grossing

We expect to receive UK population and private household estimates based on the 2021 Census (2022 for Scotland) later in 2024. A back series of grossing factors from FYE 2013 will be produced to re-base the FRS estimates from that year onwards. These plans will affect all FRS-based statistics.

Inclusion of Cost of Living payments in FRS income-based variables

In November 2022 the government announced additional support to families with several cost-of-living support schemes, from Spring 2023, depending on family circumstances. The FRS will include these payments within the relevant variables on the FRS dataset.

Therefore, any derived variables used within the calculation of benefit unit and household income will include these amounts as appropriate. These variables will then be used in other FRS-based publications, so the additional payments will also be reflected in their analysis (for 2023 to 2024), for publication in March 2025.

Questionnaire changes agreed from questionnaire consultation

Four changes on specific topics were implemented in the FRS 2023 to 2024 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 2023 to 2024 dataset and inclusion in the main FRS publication on GOV.UK; and the Department’s Stat Xplore online tool.

A brief description of the new questions is given below:

• Ex-Armed forces

A new question to capture whether an individual has previously served in the UK Armed Forces, either as part of the Regular or Reserve forces. This question will not be asked of those living in Northern Ireland

• Care Leavers

New questions to capture whether an individual, now aged 16 to 25, spent time in children’s residential care, as part of their adolescence (between 14 and 17 years of age). The question will distinguish from being away from home for other reasons, such as being fostered, living with another family, or being away at a boarding school

• Food – is anyone else feeding you

New questions to capture whether the family is routinely receiving food from any person or organisation (other than a food bank); which therefore complements the existing question on whether they are using a food bank

• Time spent self-employed

A new question to ask how long an individual has spent in self-employment

Review of material deprivation measures

The Code of Practice for Statistics requires regular reviews of Accredited Official Statistics. In the most recent review, in 2021, the Office for Statistics Regulation made several recommendations in relation to the official UK material deprivation measures. This included a recommendation to review the current set of questions that underpin material deprivation and to determine a way to compare material deprivation across groups.

In December 2021, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) commissioned the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics and Political Science to conduct the review. A report on the outcome of this review has now been published.

Specifically, the aims of the review were to explore:

• which material deprivation items for families with children, families with working-age adults and families with pensioners should be included in the FRS
• the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches for determining who is materially deprived
• the advantages and disadvantages of developing a core set of questions for the whole population alongside measures aimed at working-age adults, children and pensioners
• whether the advantages of updating the material deprivation measures outweigh the disadvantages

The review recommended a test of a short-list of 35 items and activities. Full details of the test questions and changes to methodology are given in Section 4 of the published review. The 35 Test questions were included in the FRS during the first quarter of the 2022 to 2023 survey year. Following the pilot, 29 new questions were introduced to the FRS survey for the whole of 2023 to 2024, with a randomly selected 75% of the sample asked the new questions and the remaining 25% the old questions. A comparison will be published in the HBAI annual report alongside the revised measures in March 2025.

We cannot yet determine the impact the review will have on the FRS-based material deprivation measures, as the 2023 to 2024 survey data will not be available until later this year. Once the data is available, we will undertake further analysis to finalise the new measures and provide details of the decisions made. This will also be published in HBAI, alongside estimates using the new measures in March 2025.

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. This is in the wider context of the UK Statistics Authority’s strategy for data linking, Joining Up Data for Better Statistics, and OSR recommendations, in their 2021 review of income-based poverty statistics, that DWP should explore the feasibility and potential of social survey and administrative data integration (Review of Income-based poverty statistics).

A technical report on FRS transformation, with illustrative results for DWP benefits, was published in March 2024. Our development work will be continuing so we plan to follow this up, with further results using HMRC PAYE and Self-Assessment data, and other administrative sources, during 2024 to 2025. Our intention is to include details on how the use of administrative data might affect HBAI low-income estimates.

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

We are proceeding from April 2024, with a fieldwork target of achieving 20,000 households.

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.

These questions are expected to produce useful data that can be delivered to users through additional variables on the FRS 2024 to 2025 dataset immediately after publication in March 2026. New variables are subject to rigorous quality assurance processes before being released. 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, but an automated read-in, from VOA / SA datasets, is being trialled. 

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 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.

5. Feedback

We welcome feedback.

Lead Statistician: M A Vaughan

Email: team.frs@dwp.gov.uk