Income and earnings coherence workplan: 2023

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 COVID-19 and changes in the cost of living on household finances.

Owner

This work is led by Ellys Monahan from the Crime, Income and Wealth division at the ONS.

Progress

This work is ongoing.

ONS’s annual and ad-hoc analysis will continue to concentrate on priority topics.

A recent example includes Income estimates for small areas, England and Wales.

Article on the composition of jobs and its impact on earnings growth

Initiative

Consider the feasibility of producing an article on the composition of jobs and its impact on earnings growth using monthly earnings bulletin data.

This analysis will use Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) and Labour Force Survey (LFS) data.

Owner

This work is led by David Freeman from the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.

Progress

This work has been completed.

You can visit the ONS website to read the publication about how furlough and changes in the employee workforce affected earnings growth during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK from 2020 to 2021.

Publish small area regional household finance statistics on a single day

Initiative

Develop a longer-term strategy to produce small area regional household income estimates. This includes:

• considering the alignment of publication dates
• bringing together administrative and survey-based statistics

Owner

This work is led by Ellys Monahan from the Crime, Income and Wealth division at the ONS.

Progress

This work is currently being scoped out.

Work on small area household finance statistics will now concentrate on progressing the development of experimental admin-based income statistics (ABIS) by comparing them with small area income estimates and investigating any differences. Small area income estimates are currently the recommended estimates to use for household income for small areas.

The team will also compare the ABIS methodology against the internationally recommended household income guidance to establish:

• which income components are still outstanding in the measure
• if there are groups within the population that are not currently fully covered

This research will inform future work towards incorporating administrative data into official measures of income.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Spring 2024.

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 David Freeman from 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

An update on this initiative will be provided in Spring 2024.

Review alignment of income and earnings releases across the GSS

Initiative

Review what has been done to align releases across the GSS. Explore:

• what further work could be done to align releases
• how much it would cost to align releases

A significant amount of work has already been done to align releases within departments. This initiative is about considering alignment across the GSS.

Owner

This work is led by Tris Browne from the Local and Coherence division at the ONS.

Progress

This work has been completed.

The alignment of GSS income and earnings releases across the 2023 calendar year has been reviewed. There was broadly good alignment across most releases. However, the number and ordering of the household income publications could potentially be challenging for some users. Therefore ONS has agreed to review the timing of its Household Disposable Income and Inequality release and co-ordinate with DWP regarding the timings of releases.

Determine the user need for a single set of UK level household income statistics

Initiative

The GSS Income and Earnings Coherence Steering Group will determine the user need for a single set of UK level household income statistics. This includes both cross-sectional and longitudinal statistics.

If it is found that users need a single set of UK level household income statistics, the Steering Group will help producers work towards creating a single, coherent and comprehensive evidence base for income statistics by providing:

• overarching direction
• strategic insight and leadership

Once the user need has been established, producers will work together to explore the feasibility of producing a single set of household income statistics.

Owner

This work is led by:

• Becky Tinsley from the ONS Local and Coherence division at the ONS
• John Marais from the Crime, Income and Wealth division at the ONS
• Steve Ellerd-Elliott, Chief Statistician at DWP

Progress

This work has been completed.

ONS held a consultation asking users for feedback on its plans to transform household financial statistics.

The consultation document referenced DWP’s household income statistics, but users were not specifically asked to provide their views on the coherence issues regarding ONS and DWP household income statistics. Despite this, 7 responses out of the 49 received mentioned DWP’s household income statistics. The information from these respondents has provided evidence of a user need for a single set of cross-sectional household income statistics.

A new initiative to record the work being done to create a single set of household income statistics will be included in the 2024 version of the workplan.

The user need for a single set of longitudinal household income statistics will be considered separately.

Continued integration of ONS household surveys

Initiative

Continue work to further integrate the Living Cost and Food Survey (LCF) and the Survey of Living Conditions (SLC) into the Household Finances Survey (HFS) (for example,  integration into a single question collection design and alignment if possible with administrative sources).

Owner

This work is led by Martina Portanti from the Social Survey Delivery division at the ONS.

Progress

This initiative has now closed.

The team is no longer able to prioritise work to integrate ONS household surveys. This is because more significant change, which had been previously planned as part of Household Financial Statistics Transformation (HFST) project, will need further investment.

Household Financial Statistics Transformation (HFST) project

Initiative

Produce a single source of information on household finances within ONS, including income, expenditure and wealth for the same households. This will involve using a combination of administrative data and efficient statistical methods to enhance survey-based data. By doing this we can meet user needs in a sustainable way.

Owner

This work is led by Adrian Chesson from the Household Financial Statistics Transformation (HFST) project at the ONS.

Progress

This initiative has now closed.

The response to the consultation transforming the ONS’s household financial statistics was published on 31 July 2023.

More significant change, which had been previously planned as part of the HFST project, will need further investment. The response to the consultation sets out ongoing work which is recorded in this workplan.

Develop the transformed Labour Force Survey (LFS) to replace the current LFS and introduce further uses of Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) administrative data in labour market estimates

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.

This also includes analysing and evaluating outputs to ensure statistical quality criteria are met.

Identify opportunities for further use of PAYE RTI administrative data in the labour market estimates, such as linking PAYE RTI to other sources, including the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). This will help improve granularity, enhance existing measures, or potentially replace some business survey data.

Owner

This work is led by Leigh Skuse from the Economic Statistics 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 November 2023.

The Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) has been running with all modes of collection since November 2022. The modes of collection are:

• online first
• telephone
• “knock to nudge”

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. This transition is currently scheduled for March 2024.

The introduction of further uses of PAYE RTI administrative data in labour market estimates will no longer be part of this project.

Timeframe

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. The team has most of the operational systems and processes in place and will begin full end to end testing of the systems and processes from November 2023. The plan is to transition to using the TLFS in place of the LFS in major labour market outputs from March 2024, subject to meeting quality criteria targets.

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 David Freeman from the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.

Progress

This work has not yet been started.

The team will continue to update the comparison of labour market data sources with the latest data.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Spring 2024.

Continue working with colleagues across the GSS towards an ‘admin-data first’ approach to household income statistics

Initiative

ONS and DWP have their own development programmes to use and integrate unit level administrative data into the production of existing household income statistics.

ONS is also developing income statistics based on administrative data for small areas. This work is part of the ONS Social Statistics Admin First project.

We will work across the system to ensure our work is co-ordinated and moving towards the long-term aim to be ‘admin-data first’ in our approach to household income statistics.

Owner

This work is led by:

• John Marais from the Crime, Income and Wealth division at the ONS
• Steve Ellerd-Elliott, Chief Statistician at DWP

Progress

This work is in progress.

Across the GSS, we continue to share approaches to using administrative data to measure household incomes. But research to build on the use of administrative data at ONS, which had been previously planned as part of the Household Financial Statistics Transformation (HFST) project, will need further investment. The response to the consultation on the future of population and migration statistics in England and Wales will help inform ONS’s future work on using administrative data.

Timeframe

DWP is currently aiming to publish initial illustrative data to demonstrate the value of linking to DWP benefits administrative data in March 2024.

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 Ellys Monahan from the Crime, Income and Wealth division at the ONS.

Progress

This work is being scoped out.

Work on small area household finance statistics will now concentrate on progressing the development of experimental admin-based income statistics (ABIS) by comparing them with small area income estimates and investigating any differences. Small area income estimates are currently the recommended estimates to use for household income for small areas.

The team will also compare the ABIS methodology against the internationally recommended household income guidance to establish:

• which income components are still outstanding in the measure
• if there are groups within the population that are not currently fully covered

This research will inform future work towards incorporating administrative data into official measures of income. More significant change, which had been previously planned as part of the Household Financial Statistics Transformation (HFST) project, will need further investment.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Spring 2024.

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 Joanna Littlechild, Head of Surveys at 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 is now looking to develop an implementation plan for the financial year ending (FYE) 2023 data release.

Timeframe

DWP is currently aiming to publish initial illustrative data to demonstrate the value of linking to DWP benefits administrative data in March 2024.

Consider updating the admin-based income statistics for small areas to a more recent year

Initiative

Consider the feasibility of updating the admin-based income statistics for small areas to a more recent year. This includes both individual and occupied address (household) statistics. This is part of the ONS Social Statistics Admin First project.

Owner

This work is led by Samantha Pendleton from the Social Statistics Transformation, Analysis and Research division at the ONS.

Progress

This work has been completed. You can visit the ONS website to read the Admin-based income statistics, England and Wales: tax year ending 2018 report.

Publish research into census-based household income

Initiative

Publish research into census-based household income using administrative data. This means using a census population base rather than an administrative population base. This is part of the ONS Social Statistics Admin First project.

Owner

This work is led by Samantha Pendleton from the Social Statistics Transformation, Analysis and Research division at the ONS.

Progress

This initiative has now closed.

Work on small area household finance statistics will now concentrate on progressing the development of experimental admin-based income statistics (ABIS) by comparing them with small area income estimates and investigating any differences. Small area income estimates are currently the recommended estimates to use for household income for small areas.

The team will also compare the ABIS methodology against the internationally recommended household income guidance to establish:

• which income components are still outstanding in the measure
• if there are groups within the population that are not currently fully covered

This research will inform future work towards incorporating administrative data into official measures of income. More significant change, which had been previously planned as part of the Household Financial Statistics Transformation (HFST) project, will need further investment.

Explore the availability of alternative income data sources

Initiative

Explore and monitor the availability of alternative data sources which could supplement existing income and earnings data. An example could be financial transactions data.

Owner

This work is led by Adam Evans from the Household Financial Statistics Transformation (HFST) project at the ONS.

Progress

This initiative has now closed.

ONS has developed a good understanding of alternative income data sources, but more significant change, which had been previously planned as part of the HFST project, will need further investment.

Review the approaches to ‘admin first’ and share best practice

Initiative

Organise an event for GSS producers to share approaches being used to incorporate administrative data into income and earnings statistics and agree best practice.

Owner

This work is led by Nick Woodhill from the Statistical Coherence and Inclusion division at the ONS.

Progress

This work has been completed.

A cross-GSS workshop was held in June 2022 on the use, and planned use, of administrative data in the production of income and earnings statistics. Colleagues are exploring synergies in their work and opportunities to share knowledge following the workshop.

Consider how the Household Finances Survey (HFS) could better capture those at the top and bottom of the income distribution

Initiative

Consider how the sample design of Household Finances Survey (HFS) could better capture and represent those at the top and bottom of the income distribution. This is part of the wider HFS transformation work.

Owner

This work is led by Carla Kidd from the Household Financial Statistics Transformation project at the ONS.

Progress

This initiative has now closed.

The team is no longer able to prioritise work to better capture those at the top and bottom of the income distribution. This is because more significant change, which had been previously planned as part of the Household Financial Statistics Transformation (HFST) project, will need further investment.

Review alignment with international best practice

Initiative

Review the alignment of income and earnings statistics with international best practice.

This work will consider our relationship with the European Union, specifically our post-Brexit status.

Owner

This work is led by Tris Browne from the Local and Coherence division at the ONS.

Progress

This work is in progress.

The ONS household income teams are actively engaging with colleagues at Statistics New Zealand to share and learn from the transformation of household income statistics internationally.

The international databases used to collate household income statistics have been reviewed and UK data sources used within them have been documented.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Spring 2024.

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 John Marais from the Household Income and Wealth division at the ONS.

Progress

This work is in progress.

ONS is working towards updating the persistent poverty publication for 2019.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in early 2024.

Review Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) statistics available in ONS ‘Customise My Data’

Initiative

Review and potentially increase the range of ASHE statistics available in the ONS ‘Customise My Data’ service.

Owner

This work is led by David Freeman from the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.

Progress

This initiative has now closed.

This work is no longer a priority because work will now concentrate on the Secure Research Service (SRS) and the Interactive Data Service (IDS).

Publish more regular insights on living standards

Initiative

Publish more regular, higher frequency insights on living standards from a range of surveys and administrative datasets.

Owner

This work is led by Ellys Monahan from the Household Income and Wealth division at the ONS.

Progress

This initiative has now closed.

Updates on ONS’s work to provide insights on living standards will be provided as part of the initiative ‘Analysis of important areas of public and policy interest on household finances’.

Update the ‘guide to sources of data on income and earnings’

Initiative

Review and build on the ‘guide to sources of data on income and earnings’ to ensure it references income-based poverty statistics and includes the new DWP Children in Low Income Families (CiLIF) publication.

Owner

This work is led by Nick Woodhill from the Statistical Coherence and Inclusion division at the ONS.

Progress

This work has been completed. The updated guide was published in March 2022. You can visit the ONS website to access the income and earnings statistics guide.

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 Tris Browne from the Local and Coherence division at the ONS.

Progress

This work is in progress.

The Interactive Data Service (IDS) has been creating a content management system and tools to help analysts produce ready-to-use, well described data. This is demonstrated through the proof of concept climate change portal. The portal brings together cross government data to use in a series of dashboards and articles.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Spring 2024.

Include Family Resources Survey (FRS) related data in the ONS Secure Research Service (SRS)

Initiative

Explore the feasibility of including FRS-related data in the ONS SRS.

Owner

This work is led by Joanna Littlechild, Head of Surveys at DWP.

Progress

This work has been completed.

FRS data is now available on the SRS. Each year the DWP will add the latest FRS data after its March release.

Release Family Resources Survey (FRS) related data through Stat X-plore

Initiative

Explore the feasibility of releasing FRS-related data through the DWP Stat X-plore tool.

Owner

This work is led by Joanna Littlechild, Head of Surveys at DWP.

Progress

This work has been completed.

FRS material went live on Stat X-plore on 17 January 2023. Each year the DWP will add the latest FRS data after its March release.

Update and engage with users on plans to improve self-employed income data following HMRC’s ‘Making Tax Digital’ initiative

Initiative

Update and engage with users on plans to explore the feasibility of improving 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 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.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Autumn 2025.

Establish a working group to consider the impact of COVID-19 on the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and Household Finances Survey (HFS) data quality and develop solutions

Initiative

DWP and ONS jointly establish a working group where research into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on data collection, dataset production and analysis for the FRS and HFS datasets are shared and solutions developed.

Owner

This work is led by:

• Veronique Siegler from the Social Survey Delivery at the ONS
• Joanna Littlechild, Head of Surveys at DWP

Progress

This work has been completed.

The working group for the financial year ending (FYE) 2021 publications has concluded. The teams have agreed to informal meetings for the financial year ending (FYE) 2022 publications to:

• share approaches
• discuss best practice
• align methods, where possible

Understand the impact of COVID-19 on the Family Resources Survey (FRS) data quality

Initiative

Implement adjustments into the financial year ending (FYE) 2021 FRS dataset (and publications based on the FRS including Households Below Average Income (HBAI), Pensioners’ Income (PI) and benefit take-up statistics) to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on data quality.

Owner

This work is led by Joanna Littlechild, Head of Surveys at DWP.

Progress

This work has been completed.

You can visit GOV.UK to access the technical report assessing the effect of COVID-19 on the HBAI statistics for FYE 2021 on GOV.UK.

Understand the impact of COVID-19 on Household Finances Survey (HFS) data quality

Initiative

Implement adjustments into the financial year ending (FYE) 2021 HFS dataset (and associated publications) to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on data quality.

Owner

This work is led by Veronique Siegler from Survey Operations at ONS.

Progress

This work has been completed.

You can visit the ONS website to access the release interpreting changes in UK income estimates during the COVID-19 pandemic for the FYE 2021.

Implement a new template to report on the quality of HMRC’s official statistics

Initiative

HMRC is adopting ONS’s Best Practice and Impact Team’s background quality report template to report on the quality of its official statistics.

Note: This is part of a wider programme of quality-related improvements designed in response to recommendations in the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) report on HMRC’s statistics, published in April 2020. The programme of work includes: setting up a quality network to discuss developments across HMRC analytical teams, setting clearer expectations for quality assurance, building stronger links with data providers and making greater use of data science tools and methods.

Owner

This work is led by Jackie Orme from HMRC .

Progress

This work has been completed.

HMRC has published a set of quality reports.

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 Tris Browne from the Local and Coherence division at the ONS.

Progress

This work is in progress.

ONS is reviewing how information on quality is presented in income and earnings articles and publications.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Spring 2024.

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 Joanna Littlechild, Head of Surveys at 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.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Spring 2024.

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:

• Ellys Monahan from the Crime Income and Wealth division at the ONS
• Martina Portanti from the Social Survey Delivery division at the ONS

Progress

This work is in progress.

More significant change to introduce RAPs, which had been previously planned as part of the Household Financial Statistics Transformation (HFST) project, will need further investment. But ONS’s business as usual areas are making progress with smaller developments to implement RAPs.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Spring 2024.

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 David Freeman from the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.

Progress

This work has not yet started. It is dependent on funding, resourcing, and prioritisation.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Autumn 2024.

Review the timeliness of the Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) publication

Initiative

Review the timeliness of the AWE publication now that its data collection has moved online.

Owner

This work is led by David Freeman from the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.

Progress

This work has been completed.

The timeliness of the AWE publication has been reviewed by the production team. No further improvements can be made to the current schedule.

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 David Freeman from the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.

Progress

This work is in progress.

The number of ASHE returns through the Secure Electronic File Transfer (SEFT) continued to increase in 2023. But the development of an electronic questionnaire is dependent on funding, resourcing, and prioritisation.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Autumn 2024.

Increase Family Resources Survey (FRS) sample size

Initiative

Increase the FRS sample to 45,000 households a year. This will start in the Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2022 with a partial boost, and there will be a full boost from the financial year ending 2023. The first annual results based on the full sample are expected in the March 2024 publication. The boost will support a range of more granular analysis, such as by ethnicity.

Owner

This work is led by Joanna Littlechild, Head of Surveys at DWP.

Progress

This initiative has now closed.

The results for the FYE 2022 year were published in March 2023.

Fieldwork for FYE 2023 was challenging, which meant the final achieved sample was 25,000 rather than 45,000 households taking part. This still remains the largest FRS sample in a decade. A lack of interviewer capacity was a major reason for the shortfall.

The boost to the FRS sample is under review. This means DWP has proceeded with the survey from April 2023 on the basis of a return to a fieldwork target of achieving 20,000 households.

The FYE 2023 results and dataset will be published in March 2024, based on 25,000 households.

Consider increasing the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) sample size

Initiative

Consider whether there is the user need and funding to boost the ASHE sample which would enable improved regional granularity.

Owner

This work is led by David Freeman from the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.

Progress

This initiative has now closed.

The ASHE sample size is yet to reach the same levels achieved before the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this initiative has closed.

Consider optimising the granularity of the Labour Market Survey (LMS)

Initiative

Consider whether there is scope to further optimise the granularity of the LMS.

Owner

This work is led by David Freeman from the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.

Progress

This initiative has now closed. It is part of the wider Labour Market Transformation initiative.

Consider how ONS household finance surveys can better capture information about under-represented groups

Initiative

Consider how ONS household finance surveys can better capture information about under-represented groups in society, such as non-household populations.

Owner

This work is led by Carla Kidd from the Household Financial Statistics Transformation (HFST) project at the ONS.

Progress

This initiative has now closed.

The survey team is no longer able to prioritise sampling improvements to better capture the bottom of end of the income distribution. This is because more significant change, which had been previously planned as part of the HFST project, will need further investment.

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 David Freeman from the Labour Market and Households division at the ONS.

Progress

This work has not yet started. It is dependent on funding, resourcing, and prioritisation.

Timeframe

An update on this initiative will be provided in Spring 2024.

Publish a feasibility report and initial research into producing admin-based income by ethnicity statistics

Initiative

Combine admin-based income statistics and admin-based ethnicity statistics and use this to assess the feasibility of producing multivariate analysis by income and ethnicity for small areas.

Owner

This work is led by Joanna Harkrader from the Social Statistics Transformation, Analysis and Research division at the ONS.

Progress

This work has been completed. You can visit the ONS website to access the release developing subnational multivariate income by ethnicity statistics from administrative data, England for the tax year ending 2016.

Publish an update on the development of admin-based income by ethnicity statistics

Initiative

Assess the quality of the admin-based income by ethnicity statistics by comparing them against related data sets.

Owner

This work is led by:

• Joanna Harkrader from the Social Statistics Transformation, Analysis and Research division at the ONS
• Ellys Monahan from the Household Income and Wealth division at the ONS

Progress

This work has been completed.

A report on developing subnational multivariate income by ethnicity statistics from administrative data, England and Wales: (tax year ending 2018) was published on 20 February 2023. The report included an assessment of the quality of the admin-based income by ethnicity statistics by comparing them against published official statistics.

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:

• Tris Browne from the Local and Coherence division at the ONS
• production teams in ONS, DWP, and HMRC

Progress

This work is ongoing.

The response to the consultation transforming the ONS’s household financial statistics was published on 31 July 2023.

A blog post on the Regulation blog called ‘The journey to improving income-based poverty statistics‘ was published in February 2023. This updated users and celebrated the work that has been done to address recommendations from the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) income-based poverty statistics review.

The Family Finance Survey User Conference organised by the UK Data Service (UKDS) was held in July 2023.

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 Joanna Littlechild, Head of Surveys at DWP.

Progress

This work is ongoing. The statistical work programme is reviewed monthly and will be updated regularly throughout 2023. 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 Tris Browne from the Local and Coherence division at the ONS.

Progress

This work is ongoing.

The UK-wide coherence team is assessing the feasibility of extending existing income estimates for small areas to cover the whole of the UK.

The income and earnings coherence team has regular meetings with the devolved administrations.

DWP also has regular meetings with the devolved administrations given their use of Family Resources Survey (FRS) and Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data.