Title

Households Below Average Income

Last update

March 2024 March 2024

Next update

2025

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

Households Below Average Income, Family Resources Survey, Department for Work and Pensions

Contact email

stats.inclusion@gov.wales

Designation

National Statistics

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

Wales

Geographical coverage

UK regions

Languages covered

English and Welsh

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

General description

This table presents data on all people, children, working-age adults and pensioners living in households that have a household income below 60 per cent of the UK median household income before and after housing costs are paid.

Data collection and calculation

The data was provided by the Department of Work and Pensions Households Below Average Income Team

Frequency of publication

Annual

Data reference periods

Figures shown are 3 year moving averages. Figures cover Great Britain to FYE 2001 to FYE 2004 and the United Kingdom from FYE 2003 to FYE 2005.

Users, uses and context

See the link on the Weblinks tab

Rounding applied

See the link on the Weblinks tab

Revisions information

For the FYE 2020 publication, a minor methodological revision was made to the HBAI data series by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to capture all income from child maintenance. This resulted in more income from child maintenance being included, in turn slightly increasing some household incomes and so tending to slightly reduce low income rates for families with children. The full back series (back to FYE 1995) was revised so that comparisons over time are on a consistent basis across the full time series. In terms of the impact of these revisions, in most cases the percentages of people in low income were unchanged rounded to the nearest percentage point.

Weblinks

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/households-below-average-income-hbai--2

Statistical quality

Note 1. FYE 2021 estimates are unreliable as they are based on data collected during the first year of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, when lockdown rules severely disrupted the data collection.

Note 2: Data collection during the financial year ending (FYE) 2022 was via telephone interviewing as opposed to the established face to face method used prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Although we have assessed the FYE 2022 data quality to be robust enough for publication, there remains some residual bias in the survey sample resulting from the change in survey mode. More information on data quality is available in the DWP technical report which accompanies the release of the FYE 2022 statistics.

Note 3: The survey asks respondents what they consider to be their ethnic origin. Individuals have been classified according to the ethnic group of the household reference person which means that information about households of multiple ethnicities is lost. Sampled numbers within smaller ethnic minority groups in Wales are small, and for this reason it is necessary to group some into an overarching "Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Group" category, and to present analysis as five-year averages. The White category includes White – Welsh/English/Scottish/Northern Ireland/British and any other White background including Gypsy and Irish Travellers.

Note 4: Disabled people are identified as those who report any physical or mental health condition(s) or illness(es) that last or are expected to last 12 months or more, and which limit their ability to carry out day-to-day activities a little, or a lot. This is in line with Equality Act definition. The means of identifying people with a disability has changed over time, and data before financial year ending 2013 are not comparable with current data.

Note 5: Some pensioners live as a couple with a partner of working age and therefore the age of the head of household will be under 65.

Note 6: The pensioner couple category will include some working age adults who live as a couple with a partner of pension age.

See the link on the Weblinks tab

Keywords

Social Inclusion; HBAI; Income; Poverty

Name

SIEQ0031