Transcript Data linking and the Family Resources Survey

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:
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benefit claims
employment spells
annual earnings
savings
tax credits
pensions
operational data on customers activities (e.g. participation in back
to work programmes).
FRS DATA
FRS DATA –
Dataset 1
F
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Personal
Details
F
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F
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Personal
Details –
Dataset 2
Imputation, editing and DV creation on full FRS.
FRS DATA
- full release to users as in
previous years
F
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Forward consenting cases to
Data Matching team in DWP
FRS DATA – for those giving
consent to link
F
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O
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F
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O
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FRS DATA
FRS DATA
O
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Personal
Details
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WPLS
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 underreporting, 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
• 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
Data
Source
Mean
Median
No of Ben Minimum
Units
Maximum
FRS
£39,511
£13,422
730
£0
£1,039,285
HMRC
£51,476
£22, 482
730
£44
£1,059,245
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
Benefit Type
On One Source
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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