DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-5828-11
title: Households Below Average Income, 1994/95-2017/18
title: Households Below Average Income, 1994/95-
title: HBAI

description: &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Households Below Average Income &lt;/em&gt;(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 - in order 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.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;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 us to compare 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.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The main source of data used in this study is the &lt;em&gt;Family Resources Survey&lt;/em&gt; (FRS), which is a continuous cross-sectional survey. The FRS has a sample of over 19,000 UK households so use of survey data means estimates produced are subject to uncertainty which can affect how changes should be interpreted, especially in the short term.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Analysis at geographies below the regional level is not available from this data.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Further information, along with the latest publication, can be found on the Department for Work and Pensions' &lt;a href="http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=hbai"&gt;HBAI&lt;/a&gt; collection web page.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; An earlier HBAI study, &lt;em&gt;Institute for Fiscal Studies Households Below Average Income Dataset, 1961-1991&lt;/em&gt;, is also available - see SN 3300.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Latest Edition Information&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For the 12th edition (March 2019), new, harmonised data for 2017/18 were added to the study and the user guidance documentation updated accordingly.&lt;strong&gt; It is advised that users produce future HBAI analysis using the new, harmonised datasets to ensure consistency with latest published HBAI results – please see the User Guidance for more information.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For the 13th edition (August 2019) resampled datasets for 1994/95-2017/18 were added to the study, and the documentation updated accordingly. Variable ETHGRPHH in the main data files h178s and i178s has also been relabelled, and a data dictionary covering ethnicity variables over time added to the documentation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Harmonisation of Variables Over Time&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;To allow users to analyse variables consistently over the time period, &lt;strong&gt;new 'harmonised' back-series datasets &lt;/strong&gt;have been created. A comprehensive variable list is available with a record of the variables that have been removed, added or altered compared to the previous HBAI year datasets stored on the UK Data Archive.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Additionally, variable derivation documentation has been provided for:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;HBAI Income Variables&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;HBAI Benefit Income Variables.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;Documentation on other HBAI variables will be available in due course.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The HBAI datasets are available in two versions from the UK Data Service:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. End User (Anonymised) Datasets&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;These datasets contain no names, addresses, telephone numbers, bank account details, NINOs or any personal details that can be considered as being disclosive under the terms of the 'ONS Disclosure Control'.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The changes to the datasets are as follows:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;All ages above 80 are coded to 80 years of age.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The variable for the amount of Council tax liability for the household has been dropped.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;All amount variables have been rounded to the nearest £1&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Large households (with 10 or more individuals) have been removed.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Safe Room Datasets&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;All of the HBAI data are available without the above restrictions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Safe Room access datasets for HBAI are available in addition to the versions available under the standard End User Licence (EUL), held at the UK Data Archive under SN 7196, Family Resources Survey, 2005/06-2017/18 and Households Below Average Income, 1994/95-2017/18: Safe Room Access. The Safe Room access data are currently only available to UK HE/FE applicants and for access from the UK Data Archive's Safe Room at the University of Essex, Colchester. Prospective users of the Safe Room access version of the FRS/HBAI will need to fulfil requirements additional to those associated with standard End User Licence datasets. Full details of the application requirements are provided at &lt;a href="http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/media/178323/secure_frs_application_guidance.pdf"&gt;Guidance on applying for the Family Resources Survey: Secure Access&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Please contact the HBAI team if you have any questions: &lt;a href="mailto:team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk"&gt;team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;