Guidance

Households Below Average Income: release strategy

Updated 26 March 2026

1. Introduction 

Households Below Average Income (HBAI) statistics provide commentary on living standards in UK households, as determined by disposable income. They include the number and percentage of people living in low-income households, and changes in income patterns over time.  

This release strategy acts as the formal notice of proposed changed to any future releases of the HBAI publication. 

The release strategy highlights the potential release of new statistics within the publication and announces any other developments for future publications. 

The Family Resources Survey (FRS) is the basis for the HBAI publication and therefore users may also find it useful to consult the Family Resources Survey: release strategy - GOV.UK for details of changes to the base FRS questionnaire and data. 

The 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 Pensions’ Statistical Work Programme.

2. User engagement 

The HBAI team engages with users in the following ways: 

• Data and Publication Quality Assurance Groups 

• Expert Advisory Group consultations 

• Senior Stakeholder Group engagement

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

• HBAI Stat-Xplore user guide and dataset documentation available on the UKDS 

• StatsUserNetwork – the online discussion forum run by the Office of National Statistics for users and producers of Official Statistics 

• DWP Statistical Work Programme which outlines developments to DWP Official Statistics 

• Responses to Parliamentary Questions and Freedom of Information requests 

• Other government departments  

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

For more details of the FRS and related publications user consultation groups please see the Family Resources Survey: release strategy - GOV.UK.

3. Changes coming to HBAI statistics

Developments for the survey year 2025 to 2026 

For the survey year 2025 to 2026, the base FRS developments which could impact on HBAI statistics are: 

• FRS sample size

• population back-series – bringing FRS (and HBAI) grossing into alignment with Census 2021 (2022 for Scotland)

• Council Tax Band – further development

• questionnaire changes approved in questionnaire consultation 

HBAI statistics which include these developments are expected to be published in March 2027.  Further detail on these base FRS developments can be found in the Developments for the survey year 2025 to 2026 section of the Family Resources Survey: release strategy - GOV.UK.

Developments for the survey year 2026 to 2027

For the survey year 2026 to 2027, the base FRS developments which could impact HBAI statistics are:

• FRS sample size

• questionnaire changes approved in questionnaire consultation

4. Other Developments  

Developments to Family Resources Survey

Other developments planned to the base FRS data which could impact on HBAI statistics are: 

• continued integration of administrative data into the FRS and related outputs  

Further detail on these base FRS developments can be found in the Other Developments section of the Family Resources Survey: release strategy - GOV.UK. 

Universal Credit Low Income Estimates development

As noted in the Statistical work programme we are proposing to develop a measure of low income for families in receipt of Universal Credit (UC). The measure would be produced from UC administrative data and cover numbers and percentages of UC families in low income, with guidance on similarities and differences compared with DWP’s other published low income measures such as Households Below Average Income and Children in Low Income Families. The measure would be available for local authorities and potentially local authority wards. It would also be available more frequently than annually (potentially quarterly) and with a short time lag compared with the reference period. For further information about or to comment on this proposed development, please contact stats.consultation-2018@dwp.gov.uk.

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. 

DWP sought user feedback on developing the new measure through an analytical consultation running from 18 January to 11 April 2024. The consultation response was published in January 2025, alongside the latest Official Statistics in Development publication in the BAR series. The publication included data for the financial year ending 2023 but did not include any substantial changes to the methodology for the measure compared to the initial publication. 

As noted at Households Below Average Income, improvements introduced in March 2026 will be applied to the back-series in two stages – in March 2026 and summer 2026. We will review the impact of the full revised HBAI back-series after the summer 2026 update before producing further updates to the Below Average Resources Official Statistics in Development.

5. Feedback 

We welcome feedback.   

If you have any comments or questions, please email: team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk