Income and earnings coherence workplan: 2024 to 2025
This Government Statistical Service (GSS) income and earnings coherence workplan was published on 10 October 2024.
It has been produced by three government departments:
- Office for National Statistics (ONS)
- Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
- HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
The workplan sets out the actions needed to achieve the GSS vision for coherence of income and earnings statistics.
The workplan will be reviewed and revised over time to reflect evolving development work, changing policies and emerging needs for evidence, including the outcomes of the Child poverty taskforce announced in July 2024. The 2023 version of this workplan is available for reference.
Analysis of important areas of public and policy interest on household finances
Initiative
Produce updated analysis on important areas of public and policy interest, such as on the effects of the cost of living on household finances.
Owner
This work is led by the Household Resilience division at the ONS.
Progress
This work is ongoing.
ONS’s annual and ad-hoc analysis will continue to concentrate on priority topics.
Publish an analysis article comparing admin-based local income statistics to the official survey-based statistics
Initiative
Progress the development of experimental admin-based income statistics (ABIS) for local areas by comparing them with Income estimates for small areas and investigating any differences.
Owner
This work is led by the Household Resilience division at the ONS.
Progress
This work has been completed.
You can visit the ONS website to access the release Exploring the use of admin data to derive small area income estimates, England and Wales.
A quality and information report for income estimates for small areas is also now available on the ONS website.
Review the timeliness of the public and private sector earnings publication
Initiative
Review the timeliness of the public and private sector earnings publication. Consider if it can be brought closer to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) publication date.
Owner
This work is led by the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.
Progress
This work has not yet been started. It is dependent on resourcing and prioritisation.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Develop the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) to replace the current Labour Force Survey (LFS)
Initiative
Continue to develop and embed new systems and processes for the transformed LFS using a multi-mode collection, which includes online, telephone and knock to nudge modes.
Owner
This work is led by the Economic Statistics Change Transformation Support division at the ONS.
Progress
This work is in progress.
The most recent Labour market transformation – update on progress and plans was published in July 2024.
The TLFS has been running with all modes of collection since November 2022. The modes of collection are:
- online first
- telephone
- “knock to nudge” visits
The ONS has been analysing the differences between both the TLFS and LFS alongside administrative data sources, where available. This is helping to inform the methodology applied to the TLFS and highlighting the differences between each survey
Since July 2023, the ONS has been sharing access to some TLFS data with a group of external users made up of other government departments and the devolved administrations. This is allowing the ONS to better understand the TLFS data and get input from experts in quality assurance and analysis. This data sharing will remain in place until the transition to using the TLFS as the lead survey in labour market outputs. The decision on the right time to make the transition to the TLFS will be driven by data quality and user confidence.
Time frame
Updates on the transformation progress continue to be published in a series of articles.
Analysis and evaluation of the TLFS continues to be the priority. Analysis in 2023 drove questionnaire changes which have created a new stable baseline start point of October 2023. Work continues to analyse and interpret the data and the differences between the surveys.
Reconcile differences between Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) and Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) statistics
Initiative
Work with HMRC to reconcile differences between PAYE-RTI and AWE statistics. This would be at the aggregate level initially.
Owner
This work is led by the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.
Progress
This work has not yet been started. It is dependent on resourcing and prioritisation.
The team will continue to update the comparison of labour market data sources with the latest data.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Assess the coherence of Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) earnings statistics
Initiative
Assess and understand the differences between ASHE statistics and other earnings statistics.
Owner
This work is led by the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.
Progress
This work is in progress and links to the quality improvement initiative on ASHE (validation and weighting review).
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Continue working with colleagues across the GSS to expand the use of administrative data in household income statistics
Initiative
DWP has its own development programme to use and integrate unit level administrative data into the production of its existing household income statistics.
ONS has also done work to develop income statistics based on administrative data for small areas.
We will work across the system to ensure our work is coordinated and moving towards expanding the use of administrative data in our approach to household income statistics.
Owner
This work is led by the Household Resilience division at the ONS and the Data as Statistics division at the DWP.
Progress
This work is in progress.
Across the GSS, we continue to share approaches to using administrative data to measure household incomes. This includes considering how totals from admin-based data sources could be used to improve existing survey-based statistics.
DWP published an update Family Resources Survey Transformation: integrating administrative data into the FRS in March 2024.
ONS published Exploring the use of admin data to derive small area income estimates, England and Wales in April 2024.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Continue to build on the use of administrative data in ONS household surveys
Initiative
Continue to build on the use of administrative data in ONS household surveys to improve the quality and granularity of our core household statistics. This includes investigating the use of HMRC’s Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data alongside DWP administrative data sources.
Understand and address the user need for continued access to microdata as the datasets become larger and more sensitive with the addition of administrative data.
Owner
This work is led by the Household Resilience division at the ONS.
Progress
This next phase of this work is being scoped out.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Linking of the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and administrative data
Initiative
Continue the FRS transformation by developing approaches to integrate a range of administrative data from DWP and HMRC into the survey. This will improve data quality and timeliness. FRS transformation will help reduce under-coverage at the bottom end of the income distribution.
This initiative specifically uses administrative data for survey variable replacement.
Owner
This work is led by the Data as Statistics division at the DWP.
Progress
This work is in progress.
FRS transformation development work continues to build on the development of a data linking approach that provides high quality match rates with quality assurance that is repeatable.
DWP published initial illustrative data in its Family Resources Survey Transformation: integrating administrative data into the FRS publication to demonstrate the value of linking to DWP benefits administrative data in March 2024.
DWP’s development work will be continuing, and the plan is to follow this up, with further results using HMRC Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Self-Assessment data, and other administrative sources, during 2024 to 2025. DWP’s intention is to include details on how the use of administrative data might affect households below average income (HBAI) low-income estimates.
Time frame
The timing of further analysis using linked data is dependent on progress analysing HMRC data.
An update will be provided through the DWP statistical work programme and the FRS release strategy.
Review alignment with international best practice
Initiative
Review the alignment of income and earnings statistics with international best practice.
Owner
This work is led by the Technical Engagement division at the ONS.
Progress
This work is in progress.
There are two main sets of household income statistics in the UK. One is published by DWP and is called Households below average income (HBAI). The other is published by ONS in two publications called Household disposable income and inequality (HDII) and Effects of taxes and benefits on household income (ETB).
The income components in both sets of household income statistics are being compared against international handbooks and frameworks. These are known as the Canberra Group Handbook on Household Income Statistics and the OECD Framework for Statistics on the Distribution of Household Income, Consumption and Wealth.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Financial wellbeing
Initiative
Explore the user need for financial resilience, material deprivation and poverty statistics, with a view to reintroducing ONS statistics on these topics, possibly within an annual financial wellbeing publication.
Owner
This work is led by the Household Resilience division at the ONS.
Progress
This work is in progress.
Financial wellbeing questions are being trialled in the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Explore the feasibility of producing a single set of household income statistics
Initiative
There are two main sets of household income statistics in the UK. One is published by DWP in a publication called Households below average income (HBAI) based on the Family Resources Survey (FRS). The other is published by ONS in two publications called Household disposable income and inequality (HDII) and Effects of taxes and benefits on household income (ETB) based on the Household Finances Survey (HFS).
The GSS Income and Earnings Coherence Steering Group is exploring the feasibility of producing a single set of household income statistics.
Owner
This work is led by the Technical Engagement and Household Resilience divisions at the ONS and the Data as Statistics division at the DWP.
Progress
This work is in progress.
The user need for a single set of household income statistics was established in 2023 following an ONS consultation asking users for feedback on its plans to transform household financial statistics.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Publish coherence and comparison guidance
Initiative
Publish updated guidance which provides coherence and comparison information on key criteria for income statistics produced by ONS, DWP and HMRC.
Owner
This work is led by the Technical Engagement division at the ONS.
Progress
This work has been completed.
To help users understand the income landscape, updated Income statistics: Coherence and comparison information has been published, which is available as a related download alongside the existing Income and earning statistics guide.
Update existing income and earnings guidance material
Initiative
Update existing income and earnings guidance material to provide further information on the differences and similarities between ONS and DWP household income statistics.
Owner
This work is led by the Technical Engagement division at the ONS.
Progress
This work is in progress.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Ensure the functionality of the interactive tool is included in the dissemination arm of the Integrated Data Service (IDS)
Initiative
Work closely with the IDS team to ensure that the functionality of the interactive tool is incorporated into the dissemination arm of the IDS.
Owner
This work is led by the Technical Engagement division at the ONS.
Progress
This initiative has now closed.
The IDS team is focusing on delivering a central platform that provides access to improved data, analytical and visualisation tools, in a secure multi-cloud infrastructure.
We will continue to keep the income and earnings interactive tool up to date.
Update and engage with users on plans to improve self-employed income data following HMRC’s ‘Making Tax Digital’
Initiative
HMRC is increasingly moving to real time digital platforms for collection of tax liability and payment data. This is bringing benefits to HMRC and other government departments in the timeliness and coverage of data on parts of the taxpayer population, for example the employed. In time this will extend to other taxpayer populations, such as the self-employed, through a programme known as ‘Making Tax Digital’. At this time it is difficult to give a precise timeframe for this work.
Owner
This work is led by HMRC.
Progress
This Work has not yet been started. The mandation of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self-Assessment (ITSA) will be introduced from April 2026. Further details are available in HMRC’s update statement made on 19 December 2022.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided in Autumn 2025.
Review how income and earnings publications present information on quality
Initiative
Review how income and earnings articles and publications:
- present information on the quality of the statistics and how comprehensive they are
- showcase best practice for producers of statistics.
Owner
This work is led by the Technical Engagement division at the ONS.
Progress
This work has been completed.
A sample of ONS articles presenting analysis on income or earnings statistics were reviewed for compliance with the quality pillar in the Code of Practice for Statistics. It was concluded that all the articles provided good examples of how information on quality should be presented.
Investigate non-response bias in the Family Resources Survey (FRS)
Initiative
Run a feasibility study to investigate non-response bias in the FRS.
Owner
This work is led by the Data as Statistics division at the DWP.
Progress
This work is in progress.
DWP will build on its data linking development to explore linking the FRS issued sample addresses, such as responding and non-responding, to administrative data. Complex methodology is involved in this innovative work and development is continuing at this stage but is looking positive. Results will be considered as part of the wider implementation of administrative data into the FRS.
DWP published initial illustrative data in its Family Resources Survey Transformation: integrating administrative data into the FRS publication to demonstrate the value of linking to DWP benefits administrative data in March 2024.
Work is continuing to see if the linking process can be refined and if adjustments can be applied to help produce more robust respondent – non-respondent comparisons.
Time frame
An update will be provided through the DWP statistical work programme and the FRS release strategy.
Use Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAPs) in the production of ONS’s household finance statistics
Initiative
Use RAPs to produce ONS’s household finance statistics and review production and publication times of the outputs post-implementation.
Owner
This work is led by the Household Resilience and Social Survey Delivery divisions at the ONS.
Progress
This work is in progress.
ONS’s business as usual areas continue to make progress with small developments to implement RAPs.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Use Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAPs) in the production of Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) and Average Weekly Earnings (AWE)
Initiative
Use RAPs in the statistical production of ASHE and AWE and review production and publication times of the outputs post-implementation.
Owner
This work is led by the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.
Progress
This work has not yet started. It is dependent on dependent on resourcing and prioritisation.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Consider moving data collection for the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) online
Initiative
Consider whether the data collection for ASHE could move online. If this is possible, then review the timeliness of the ASHE publication post-implementation.
Owner
This work is led by the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.
Progress
This work is paused.
Development of an electronic questionnaire is dependent on resourcing and prioritisation.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Investigate Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) pensions questions
Initiative
Investigate ASHE pensions questions to consider coverage, clarify quality of data collected, and consider use of outputs.
Owner
This work is led by the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.
Progress
This work has not yet started. It is dependent on resourcing and prioritisation.
Time frame
An update on this initiative will be provided when the workplan is next updated in early 2025.
Review the validation and weighting methodology for the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)
Initiative
Review ASHE selective editing approach and calibration approach in time for changes to be introduced in the 2025 survey cycle.
Owner
This work is led by the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.
Progress
This work is in progress.
Time frame
Changes are planned to be implemented for the 2025 survey cycle.
Actively share our coherence work with users
Initiative
Work with colleagues across the GSS to promote our coherence work through:
- participation in regular and informal engagements
- existing email groups and newsletters, social media and Stats User Net.
Actively seek user views using these mechanisms and use the feedback received to further refine our workplan. We will look to widen our user base and improve our understanding of how our statistics are being used across the policy and service provision.
Owner
This work is led by the Technical Engagement division at the ONS and production teams in ONS, DWP and HMRC.
Progress
This work is ongoing.
A blog post Understanding the new income statistics for local areas: Different measures for better insights was published in April 2024. This provides users with information on three sets of local income statistics and how they relate to each other.
The Family Finance Survey User Conference organised by the UK Data Service (UKDS) was held in July 2024 where both DWP and ONS presented relevant updates on their household income publications.
Continue to update the DWP statistical work programme
Initiative
DWP’s statistical work programme brings together developments from across all DWP Official Statistics into a single programme. This includes publication-specific and cross-departmental plans.
Owner
This work is led by the Data as Statistics division at the DWP.
Progress
This work is ongoing.
The statistical work programme is reviewed monthly and will be updated regularly.
You can visit GOV.UK to access the DWP statistical work programme.
Take a UK-wide approach to income and earnings statistics and regularly engage with the devolved administrations
Initiative
Ensure there are good lines of communication between UK producers of income and earnings statistics and the devolved administrations.
Owner
This work is led by the Technical Engagement division at the ONS.
Progress
This initiative has now closed.
The Income and Earnings Coherence team continues to have regular meetings with the devolved governments, as part of our business-as-usual activity. Therefore, this engagement activity no longer needs be captured as a specific initiative on this workplan.