Income and earnings coherence workplan for 2025 to 2026

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 is focusing on core household finance statistics and developing a plan to bring them back up to the standards needed by users. This is in line with the direction outlined in the plan for ONS economic statistics.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided as part of ongoing information published in relation to the plan for ONS economic statistics.

 

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.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided as part of ongoing information published in relation to the plan for ONS economic statistics.

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 TLFS Programme at the ONS.

Progress

This work is in progress.

The most recent labour market transformation update on progress and plans was published in July 2025.

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 from other government departments and the devolved governments. 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.

Timeframe

Updates on the transformation progress continue to be published in a series of labour market transformation articles.

Following a design review in 2024, changes to the design of the TLFS are being introduced to reduce bias and improve quality. The next readiness assessment will take place in July 2026, where the data quality and operational readiness will be reviewed and next steps confirmed.

 

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.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided as part of ongoing information published in relation to the plan for ONS economic statistics.

 

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).

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided as part of ongoing information published in relation to the plan for ONS economic statistics.

 

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
• Data as Statistics division at the DWP

Progress

This initiative has now closed.

ONS updates will be provided as part of ongoing information published in relation to the plan for ONS economic statistics.

DWP updates will be provided on the:

• FRS Release Strategy, which is updated as needed
• statistical work programme, which is updated monthly

 

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.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided as part of ongoing information published in relation to the plan for ONS economic statistics.

 

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.

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. This publication was made available in March 2024.

Timeframe

DWP will publish outputs from the FRS and other related outputs including Household Below Average Income (HBAI) statistics using benefits administrative data for the first time in March 2026.

Further development using linked data is dependent on progress analysing HMRC data.

Updates on this initiative will be provided on the:

• FRS Release Strategy, which is updated as needed
• statistical work programme, which is updated monthly

 

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 Income and Earnings Coherence team at the ONS.

Progress

This work has been completed.

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 have been 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.

The income and earnings statistics guide has been updated to include further information on the difference between household income statistics produced by DWP and those produced by the ONS.

 

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 initiative has now closed.

In February 2025 the ONS released a Statement on the Survey of Living Conditions (SLC) to announce that the ONS survey would cease and a newly streamlined Living Costs and Food (LCF) survey would be launched from 2026 to 2027. It will include current LCF information on spending patterns, as well as core information on income previously collected using the SLC. This will give an improved cross-cutting picture of household income and spending patterns.

 

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:

• Income and Earnings Coherence team at the ONS
• Household Resilience division at the ONS
• Data as Statistics division at the DWP

Progress

The feasibility work has been completed.

Statistical coherence remains a core strand of quality for producers of household income statistics. However, it is likely that dedicated funding would be needed to produce a single set of household income statistics.

 

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 Income and Earnings Coherence team at the ONS.

Progress

This work has been completed.

The updated income and earnings statistics guide is available on the ONS website.

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 press release ‘One year until Making Tax Digital for Income Tax launches’, which was published on 22 April 2025.

The ‘Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Business Population Statistics’ release gives details of the number of businesses that will be affected by the introduction of the new mandatory self-assessment. This release was published on 13 August 2025.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided through HMRC’s Research and Statistics.

 

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.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided in the:

• FRS Release Strategy, which is updated as needed
• statistical work programme, which is updated monthly

 

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.

For example, developing RAPs forms an important part of developments being made to the Living Costs and Food Survey processing infrastructure. This is shown in the plan for ONS economic statistics.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided as part of ongoing information published in relation to the plan for ONS economic statistics.

 

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 is in progress.

Further details on work to modernise the production of earnings statistics is available in the blog post ‘Lifting the lid on our work to improve labour market statistics’, which was published by the ONS.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided as part of ongoing information published in relation to the plan for ONS economic statistics.

 

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 in progress.

Further details on work to modernise the production of earnings statistics is available in the blog post ‘Lifting the lid on our work to improve labour market statistics’ which was published by the ONS.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided as part of ongoing information published in relation to the plan for ONS economic statistics.

 

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.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided as part of ongoing information published in relation to the plan for ONS economic statistics.

 

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.

Improvements introduced in the October 2024 publication are described in the blog post ‘Exploring this year’s earnings figures’, which was published by the ONS.

Further details on work to modernise the production of earnings statistics is available in the blog post ‘Lifting the lid on our work to improve labour market statistics’ which was published by the ONS.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided as part of ongoing information published in relation to the plan for ONS economic statistics.

 

Develop new statistics based on the Social Metrics Commission (SMC) approach to poverty

Initiative

The SMC approach to poverty provides a more expansive view of available resources (both savings and inescapable costs) than the income measurement adopted under the existing Households below average income (HBAI) publication. The SMC approach also proposes some methodological changes.

A new measure of poverty will be developed based on this approach.

Owner

This work is led by the Income, Families and Disadvantage Analysis division at the DWP.

Progress

This work is in progress.

A new poverty measure called Below Average Resources has been developed based on the approach proposed by the SMC.

DWP sought user feedback on the new measure though a consultation. A response to the consultation on the Below Average Resources measure has been published.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided on the statistical work programme, which is updated monthly

 

Publish children in low-income families (CiLIF) statistics calibrated to households below average income (HBAI) UK estimates

Initiative

CiLIF statistics have been historically calibrated to HBAI regional estimates. Following discovery work and user engagement, CILIF statistics will now be calibrated to HBAI UK estimates.

Owner

This work is led by the Data as Statistics division at the DWP.

Progress

This work has been completed.

The latest Children in low income families (CiLIF) release is calibrated to HBAI UK estimates and the accompanying background information and methodology note summarises the changes.

 

Consult on proposals to develop an After Housing Costs measure of local area child poverty statistics

Initiative

Consult on proposals for developing official statistics on After Housing Costs (AHC) counts and proportions of children in low-income families. These data would be published alongside the existing Before Housing Costs (BHC) Children in low income (CiLIF) statistics.

Owner

This work is led by the Data as Statistics division at the DWP.

Progress

This work is in progress.

A consultation note on proposals for developing an After Housing Costs measure of local area child poverty statistics has been published and the methodology is under development.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided on the statistical work programme, which is updated monthly.

 

Develop a measure of low income for families receiving Universal Credit (UC)

Initiative

Develop a measure of low income from UC administrative data covering the numbers and percentages of UC families in low income.

This should be accompanied by guidance on similarities and differences compared with DWP’s other published low income measures, such as households below average income (HBAI) and children in low Income families (CiLIF). 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.

Owner

This work is led by Income, Families and Disadvantage Analysis division at the DWP.

Progress

This work is in progress.

Timeframe

Updates on this initiative will be provided on the statistical work programme, which is updated monthly.

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 Network

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:

• Income and Earnings Coherence team at the ONS
• production teams at the ONS, DWP, and HMRC

Progress

This work is ongoing.

The Family Finance Survey User Conference was organised by the UK Data Service (UKDS) and held in July 2025. Both DWP and ONS presented relevant updates on their household income publications at the conference.

 

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.