DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-5828-13
title: Households Below Average Income, 1994/95-2019/20
title: Households Below Average Income, 1994/95-
title: HBAI

description: &lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Households Below Average Income 1994/95-2019/20&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;a title="Family Resources Survey" href="https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/series/series?id=200017"&gt;Family Resources Survey&lt;/a&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. Analysis at geographies below the regional level is not available from these data.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Further information, along with the latest publication, can be found on the GOV.UK &lt;a title="HBAI" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/households-below-average-income-hbai--2"&gt;HBAI&lt;/a&gt; webpage.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;An earlier HBAI study, &lt;em&gt;Institute for Fiscal Studies Households Below Average Income Dataset, 1961-1991&lt;/em&gt;, is held at the UKDS under SN 3300.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Latest Edition Information (methodological revisions)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For the 15th edition (May 2021), the 2019/20 data and documentation were added to the study, and the full back series of data and documentation (1994/95-2018/19) was replaced due to methodological revisions. Changes are as follows.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For the 2019/20 statistics a minor methodological revision has been made to capture all income from child maintenance. This results in more income from child maintenance being included, in turn slightly increasing some household incomes and so tending to slightly reduce low income rates for families with children. The full back series (1994/95-2018/19) has been revised so that comparisons over time are on a consistent basis across the full time series. This also means that figures for 1994/95-2018/19 in this year's publication (2019/20 statistics) may be slightly different to the equivalent figures in previous publications. Please refer to the &lt;a title="HBAI Quality and Methodology Information Report" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020/household-below-average-income-series-quality-and-methodology-information-report-fye-2020"&gt;HBAI Quality and Methodology Information Report&lt;/a&gt; on the HBAI homepage for more information.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, one individual level dataset has been published covering the latest publication year 2019/20 and historical HBAI years from 1994/95 to 2018/19.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For UK Data Service users, this dataset has been broken down into three-year sub-datasets that will need to be stacked together – this is to avoid DWP download limits being breached. &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;New, associated individual level resamples datasets&lt;/span&gt; for each HBAI year have also been published for measuring uncertainty (confidence intervals) around HBAI estimates.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a result, all other HBAI datasets (published prior to 25 March 2021) have been removed from the UK Data Service and all future analysis should use the new dataset.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Going forward, for each HBAI publication, users will be provided with one individual level dataset covering the latest HBAI year and all historical years with income-based variables in the latest publication year prices, as well as the latest year’s resamples dataset (also at an individual level). This will allow for future development, such as adding in new variables and any data revisions. The historical years’ resamples datasets will remain unchanged.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Please use these new datasets for all trend and historical analysis from now on. The user guide should provide all the information needed to help:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Combine the three-year sub-datasets into one dataset covering 1994/95 to 2019/20;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Convert code based on family (benefit unit) HBAI data;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Produce HBAI estimates;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;but please get in touch with the HBAI Team at &lt;a title="team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk" href="mailto:team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk"&gt;team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk&lt;/a&gt; if you need further support.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Documentation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The following documentation is available to support users:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;HBAI 1920 Harmonised Dataset_User Guide&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;HBAI 1920 Harmonised Dataset_Variables Guide&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;HBAI 1920 Harmonised Dataset_Measuring Uncertainty in HBAI Estimates&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;HBAI 1920 Harmonised Dataset_FRS Sampling and HBAI Grossing Process&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;HBAI 1920 Harmonised Dataset_Benefit Income Derivation&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;HBAI 1920 Harmonised Dataset_Ethnicity Variables Derivation Over Time&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;HBAI 1920 Harmonised Dataset_Income Variables Derivation&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;Documentation on other HBAI variables will be available in due course. The HBAI team want to provide user-friendly datasets and clearer documentation so please contact &lt;a title="team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk" href="mailto:team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk&lt;/a&gt; if you have any suggestions or feedback on the new harmonised datasets and documentation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The HBAI datasets are available in two versions at 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 disclosive under the terms of the 'ONS Disclosure Control'.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Changes made 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 and pensioner flags for the head and spouse have been removed.&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 HBAI data are available without the above restrictions. Safe Room access datasets for HBAI are held under SN 7196, &lt;em&gt;Family Resources Survey and Households Below Average Income: Safe Room Access&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;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 in the document &lt;a title="Guidance on applying for the Family Resources Survey: Secure Access" 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;