Guidance

Households Below Average Income: release strategy

Published 29 January 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 Pension’s 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 2024 to 2025 

Developments to base FRS for 2024 to 2025 affecting HBAI statistics 

For the survey year 2024 to 2025 the base FRS developments which will affect HBAI statistics are: 

• transformative use of DWP administrative data 

• impact of integrating administrative data into the FRS and related outputs  

• postponement of population back-series until March 2027 

• deferral of revised grossing factors for 2024 to 2025 

• questionnaire changes approved in questionnaire consultation 

Further detail on these base FRS developments can be found in the Developments for the survey year 2024 to 2025 section of the Family Resources Survey: release strategy - GOV.UK. 

From the above, HBAI users should particularly note: 

• the implementation of the two-stage back-series changes and  

• that key poverty measures, including the number/proportion of people identified as being in poverty for all groups and in all years from 2018 to 2019 (both relative and absolute measures), will change because of the integration of administrative data into HBAI   

HBAI statistics, which include these developments, will be published on 26 March 2026.  This date has been confirmed on the statistics release calendar Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2025 - Accredited official statistics announcement - GOV.UK 

An update to the absolute low-income reference year   

As announced in the FRS release strategy, benefits data in the FRS will be replaced with administrative data, back to 2018 to 2019 (the earliest year for which we have sufficient linking to administrative records). Given the structural break, we previously announced that HBAI would be reviewing the reference date for the absolute low-income measure (currently 2010 to 2011). 

After careful consideration of options, the reference year will now change to be 2024 to 2025. This will happen at the time of the 2024 to 2025 HBAI publication, in March 2026, bringing the measure as up to date as possible. It should be noted that: 

• when low-income measures are published, the 2024 to 2025 absolute and relative low-income numbers will be the same for 2024 to 2025, although the absolute and relative back-series will be different. Future years, when published, will also be different; and 

• given the two-stage change to the back-series years outlined in the Family Resources Survey: release strategy - GOV.UK, changes to the absolute reference year back to 2018 to 2019 will also happen in two stages as follows:   

  • in March 2026, the absolute reference year will be changed to 2024 to 2025 for both 2024 to 2025 and the three back-series years being changed at that point (remaining at 2010 to 2011 for years prior to 2021 to 2022) and;

  • in summer 2026, the absolute reference year will be updated to 2024 to 2025 for all years back to 2018 to 2019

This change will impact the number of people identified as living in absolute low income, for the years where the absolute reference year has been updated (i.e. back to 2018 to 2019 by summer 2026 update). It is a reclassification to a more up-to-date absolute low-income date, rather than a correction of an error in previous estimates. 

These changes will improve the quality of our analysis of the income distribution and reporting on child poverty. Changes to the absolute low-income reference year outlined above will also impact Separated Families statistics and Children in low-income families statistics.

Publication of the Deep Material Poverty measure 

As outlined in the Child Poverty Strategy, Our Children, Our Future: Tackling Child Poverty, the Strategy will track progress against two headline metrics. The first is relative low income after housing costs (AHC), which identifies children in households with income below 60% of median income after housing costs are deducted. This metric is already included in the annual HBAI publication tables. 

To complement this, a second measure has been developed to capture children experiencing a deeper level of poverty. Deep material poverty is based on material deprivation, specifically whether families can afford certain essential items. It therefore reflects a broader range of financial pressures, such as high costs and debt burdens that income-based statistics alone do not fully capture. It will be impacted by a wide range of policy interventions across the Child Poverty Strategy, where these help families to better access or afford essentials. 

From the March 2026 publication, new data tables will be included in the HBAI publication to present estimates for the number and percentage of children in deep material poverty. This new deep material poverty measure is defined as lacking at least 4 out of 13 essential material deprivation items. The new HBAI publication tables will contain similar breakdowns to those that were included in the ad hoc statistical analysis published alongside the Child Poverty Strategy. 

Other publication tables/chart changes   

There are two other publication tables/charts changes planned for the March 2026 HBAI publication, both of which have been prompted by user feedback. 

Firstly, we will make changes to ensure that four supplementary time series HBAI publication tables are unaffected by the changing State Pension Age over time and more reflective of the current State Pension Age. The tables impacted are: 5.5 tr, 5.6 tr, 6.5 tr and 6.6 tr.  These currently present data on those aged 65+ (6.5 tr and 6.6 tr) and 64 and under (5.5 tr and 5.6 tr) and from March 2026 will change to present data on those aged 66+ (6.5 tr and 6.6 tr) and 65 and under (5.5 tr and 5.6 tr). When State Pension age changes again in future we will then recut these time series tables again to match that change.      

Secondly, we will add two new After Housing Costs (AHC) publication charts to the March 2026 release and routinely produce these going forward. The Before Housing Cost (BHC) versions of these charts are already routinely published. The new charts are: After Housing Cost (AHC) versions of: Changes in real income (the BHC equivalent is chart 1_1) and Weekly net equivalised disposable income (the BHC equivalent is chart 1_2).   

Revised outputs for HBAI education variable on historical datasets 

Corrected data for the HBAI variable EDATTAIN (which is based on the FRS education variable EDUCQUAL) for the survey year 2023 to 2024 was published in March 2025. Corrected data for this HBAI variable for the survey year 2022 to 2023 and 2021 to 2022 will be available in March 2026 when new data for these back-series years are released as part of the integration of administrative data changes. 

Issues with this variable were also found to be present for earlier survey years.  However prior years will not be adjusted, due to the data deletion policy under the governance of UK GDPR.

Developments for the survey year 2025 to 2026 

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

• plans to produce a back series of grossing factors

• Council Tax Band 

• 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.

4. Other Developments  

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

• 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. 

5. Feedback 

We welcome feedback.   

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