Family Resources Survey 2000-01
Uses of Family Resources Survey data
The FRS is used widely across the Department. The main uses are:
The Department's Policy Simulation Model (PSM), used extensively by DWP analysts for policy evaluation and costing of policy options. FRS responses are uprated to current prices, benefits and earnings levels and calibrated to DWP Departmental Report forecasts of benefit caseload. Using FRS data has made it possible to model some aspects of the benefit system which could not be done previously,: eg income related benefits' severe disability premia and allowances for child care costs. In addition to their use in formal modelling, FRS data play a vital role in the analysis of patterns of benefit receipt for policy monitoring and evaluation and benefit forecasting. Examples are the extent of multiple benefit receipt and the distribution of individual benefits.
Households Below Average Income (HBAI) methodology. The income measure used is based on weekly net (disposable) equivalised household income (ie income adjusted for household size and composition by means of equivalence scales). The HBAI data set also forms the basis of the Pensioners' Income Series, the Department's analysis of trends in components and levels of pensioners' incomes and the Individual Income Series.
Individual Income series published by the Women and Equality Unit. The Individual Income series provides estimates of the gross, net and disposable incomes of men and women, whether living as couples or single persons.
Estimates of take-up of income related benefits. Figures are based on a combination of administrative and survey data. The FRS provides information about people's circumstances, which is used to estimate numbers of people who are not claiming benefits to which they appear to be entitled.
The FRS has also been used as a sampling frame for follow up studies to look at particular groups. The most recent example is a follow-up survey of pensioners entitled to, but not claiming, Minimum Income Guarantee, which is currently underway. The survey remit was to look at the circumstances of this group and establish why they were not claiming benefits to which they appeared to be entitled. The largest example is the Disability Survey, which re-interviewed over 7,000 disabled respondents who appeared in the FRS between July 1996 and March 1997. The survey provides a detailed picture of type and severity of disability, extra needs and participation in leisure activities of the disabled. Merged with FRS information, findings were used to measure and analyse receipt of disability benefits and gather information to enable more accurate forecasting of expenditure.
Although primary users of FRS data remain within the DWP, the survey is increasingly being used outside the Department. The data set is provided to other government departments on request. It is also accessed by researchers and analysts outside government through the Data Archive at Essex University.
