Family Resources Survey

Data Linking

Jo Cockerham

Overview

Background

Uses of linked data

Development of consent question

Methodology Match rates

Results from linked 2006/07 data

Future projects

Questions?

The Family Resources Survey

Launched in 1992 by DWP

26,000 private households in UK (about 24,000 in GB)

Detailed information on incomes and benefit receipt, tenure and housing costs, savings

Fieldwork carried out by ONS and NatCen

Background to data linking work

2004 Strategic Review of FRS

Problems with take-up statistics

Improvements to administrative data

New FRS contract from April 2006

Intended uses of linked data

Statistical and research purposes only

Improve the quality of FRS data

Longitudinal analyses – tracking how different groups move in and out of work and how their situation changes over time

Initially to only be made available internally at DWP and to selected HMRC analysts

Will not be used for operational purposes, such as fraud detection

Informed consent

Requires informed consent of respondent (Data Protection Act 1998)

Personal details need to be passed to DWP for linking (name, address, sex, date of birth – and NINO pre 2008)

Pilot study took place in 2006

Developed consent question which was introduced in November 2006

Features of 2006 consent question

Asked at end of questionnaire

Separate block to collect full name, address, NINO, date of birth

Written consent forms

Detailed wording

Proxy consent packs

Consent in 2006/07 FRS

Consent lower than anticipated

40 - 45 per cent for personal interviews

Approx 35 per cent including proxies

Known biases: – Consent rate lower among ethnic minorities

– Consent falls slightly as age increases

– Employees have higher consent than self-employed

Development of new consent question

Question suspended from August 2007

Resources diverted to development of improved question

Qualitative pilot October 2007

Quantitative pilot in January 2008

Qualitative pilot

30 in-depth interviews with respondents: split into 3 samples

– Concluded that question needed to be simplified, more informal and required further clarification in the wording

Interviewer focus groups

– Findings consistent with respondent interviews

Quantitative pilot

Conducted in January 2008 main stage sample

(1900 individuals)

To test: Achieved consent rate Simplified version of the question Removal of paper consent forms Improved survey materials Removal of NINO/collection of personal details as part of

main questionnaire

2008 pilot results

Consent rate rose to 62%

No bias between sub-groups

Leaflet received positive response

No difference between DWP and ONS consent

New question introduced from April 2008

Administrative data held by DWP

Despite low consent rate, useful analyses can be carried out.

The FRS has been linked to the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS).

500 million lines of data covering: – benefit claims– employment spells– annual earnings– savings– tax credits– pensions– operational data on customers activities (e.g. participation in

back to work programmes).

FRSID

PersonalDetailsFRS DATA

FRS DATA –Dataset 1

FRSID

FRSID

PersonalDetails –

Dataset 2

FRSID

FRSID

PersonalDetails

ORCID

ORCID

FRSID

ORCID

FRS DATA – for those giving consent to link

FRS DATA

ORCID

WPLS

ORCID

FRS DATA

Imputation, editing and DV creation on full FRS.

FRS DATA- full release to users as in

previous yearsForward consenting cases to Data Matching team in

DWP

Matching methodology

“Traffic lights” system Staged approach by NINO, then surname (soundex),

initial of forename, DoB, gender and postcode sector

Match type

What matches

Green NINO plus 4 or 5 of the variables

Amber NINO plus 3 of the variables

Red NINO plus 2 of the variables

No Match NINO plus matches plus 1 or 0 of the variables

Matching methodology

Where match for NINO is not available, fuzzy matching by surname (soundex), initial of forename, DoB, gender and postcode sector

Match type What matches

Green Amber All 5 variables

Amber Red 4 variables, including DoB

Red Amber 4 variables, excluding DoB

Matching Rates 2006/07 data

Match Type Number of cases Percentage

Green 4413 67.9

Amber 709 10.9

Red 189 2.9

No Match 135 2.1

Green Amber 312 4.8

Amber Red 163 2.5

Red Amber 393 6.0

No Record 185 2.8

Total 6499 100.0

Results from Linked Data: Savings

Savings/assets data on FRS criticised as unreliable i.e. underestimates people’s savings.

This can impact on high profile National Statistics. For example, figures on Pension Credit Take-Up.

Work carried out to assess the level of any under-reporting, compared the FRS to the HMRC data.

Several caveats: – sample size small– HMRC data covers fewer savings products than the

FRS– HMRC data only available to 2004/5.

Savings Data

Data Source

Mean Median No of Ben Units

Minimum Maximum

FRS £39,511 £13,422 730 £0 £1,039,285

HMRC £51,476 £22, 482 730 £44 £1,059,245

• Table below shows the comparison of the FRS measure with the FRS/HMRC measure of total capital

• HMRC figure is calculated using combination of FRS assets plus HMRC assets

• Where an HMRC account exists, they have higher/larger amounts in them

Note: These figures are unpublished and should not be reproduced or quoted

Comparison of benefits

Only compared benefit spells which were live at the time of interview.

10 key benefits were examined.

Numbers claiming benefits

Benefit Type WPLS FRS

Retirement Pension 1765 1748

Pension Credit 475 371

Carer’s Allowance 84 70

Bereavement Benefit 34 31

Incapacity Benefit 245 221

Severe Disablement Allowance

40 34

Disability Living Allowance 422 420

Attendance Allowance 172 141

Job Seekers Allowance 103 94

Income Support 426 389

Comparison of WPLS with FRS

Benefit Type On Both On WPLS On FRS

Retirement Pension 1731 34 17

Pension Credit 359 116 12

Carer’s Allowance 59 25 11

Bereavement Benefit 28 6 3

Incapacity Benefit 188 57 33

Severe Disablement Allowance

15 25 19

Disability Living Allowance 370 52 50

Attendance Allowance 137 35 4

Job Seekers Allowance 86 17 8

Income Support 382 44 7

Comparison of Benefit Amounts

On Both On One Source

Benefit Type WPLS FRS WPLS FRS

Retirement Pension £94 £96 £90 £81

Pension Credit £44 £41 £37 £35

Carer’s Allowance £51 £53 £49 £55

Bereavement Benefit £85 £77 £80 £11

Incapacity Benefit £88 £85 £83 £73

Severe Disablement Allowance £63 £71 £54 £58

Disability Living Allowance £62 £59 £45 £56

Attendance Allowance £53 £50 £54 £47

Job Seekers Allowance £62 £59 £61 £68

Income Support £78 £73 £77 £113

Note: These figures are unpublished and should not be reproduced or quoted

Future Project Proposals

Investigating how benefits analysis may improve FRS validation

Rematch the data without using NINO to compare the quality of the match with/without NINO

Investigating how benefit mis-reporting affects total household income

Linking FRS earnings data to investigate how people are living on reported zero or low incomes

Comparison of FRS employment outcomes to data derived from P45 information

Questions

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