Response to UKSA Monitoring Review on Income and Earnings statistics

Joint response from ONS, DWP, HMRC

July 2015

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Overview presentation

• Introduction and context• Framework for taking work forward:

- New work and improvements to date- Short term improvements- Longer term issues

• How to move forward together

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Introduction

• Why do statistics on income and earnings matter?- Provide data for policy-makers in tax and welfare and

pension reform, macro-economic decisions- Inform the living standards debate and the general

public- Provide international comparisons and evidence-base - Required to respond to legislative requirements e.g.

EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) reform

- Links to Consultation on Measuring Consumer Prices: the options for change

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Available statistics on income and earnings

4Source: UKSA Monitoring Review, p 12

UKSA recognised recent and planned work

• UKSA welcomed recent and planned

work including:- Jointly produced user guide to sources of income

and earnings statistics- Work to consider differences in AWE and ASHE- Exploration of nowcasting the distribution of

household income- Greater use of Real Household Disposable

Income (RHDI)

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Main recommendations

• Address the timeliness of statistics on income from the self-employed

• Consider how best to provide users with themed analysis

• Improve accessibility to the wide range of statistics and underlying data

• Improve guidance on strengths and limitations of data

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The way forward:

Started to address issues and themes:• Many different sets of information available where there are a

number of issues and improvement is desirable• Range of audiences for data: expert users to interested citizens

In the short term we plan to:• Continue to make improvements to information available, and • Address the issue that the relationship between the various

statistics and data not always well set out • Start to address the issue of self employed income

In the longer term:• Scope the development of a set of more coherent measures to

improve the story that the statistics tell

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NEW WORK AND IMPROVEMENTS

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New work and improvements to date

• Published User Guide to sources of data

but would like user feedback • Published ‘Measuring Consumer Prices: the options

for change’ and would like user input• ONS measures to be presented today:

• Alternative measures of RHDI• Supplementary analysis of trends in earnings• Effects of Taxes & Benefits (ETB)• Nowcasts of median household income• Price indices for different sub-groups • Real income indices for different sub-groups

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Other new work and improvements

• Improved commentary and new information in latest DWP releases of - Family Resources

Survey (FRS) 2013/14- Pensioners’ Incomes (PI)

Series- Households Below

Average Income (HBAI)- Income related Benefits:

Estimates of take-up

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Other new work and improvements

• HMRC developing Survey of Personal Income (SPI) data for High Earners and testing Real Time Information (RTI) PAYE dataset

• ONS have published additional analysis of longitudinal EU-SILC data - Persistent poverty in the UK and EU

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/household-income/persistent-poverty-in-the-uk-and-eu/2008-2013/persistent-poverty-in-the-uk-and-eu--2008-2013.html

- Poverty and employment transitions in the UK and EU: (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/household-income/poverty-and-employment-transitions-in-the-uk-and-eu/2007-2012/poverty-and-employment-transitions-in-the-uk--2007-2012.html)

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IN THE SHORT TERM

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How to identify the overall picture?

• Range of data available (including economic wellbeing indicators)

• Value in bringing together in one place

• Asking views today on compendia: content, coverage, format

13ONS: Wellbeing Q1 2015 (June 2015)

Improving data on the self-employed

• Acknowledge difficulties with information from surveys and timeliness of administrative data

• HMRC working on estimation of personal income streams based on SPI

• Asking views on options for how to take forward

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Improving information and timeliness

Improved information• Use of deflators in HBAI

and PI following Consultation on Measuring Consumer Prices

• Finalise method of calculation of uncertainty in HBAI

• Continue themed analysis of data e.g. ASHE 2015

Improved timeliness• Consider introduction of

experimental nowcasts for ETB distribution and improve ETB timeliness

• Complete FRS processing review for timeliness, consider next steps

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Improving access to data

• FRS, HBAI, PI end user and restricted access datasets should be available via the UK Data Service by early August

• HMRC making SPI Public Use tables available• Implementing the new VML and joint training

programme• Implementing improvements to .GOV release calendar• Improved use of NOMIS and Web Data Access for

ASHE and ETB• ONS Beta prototype website will be open for feedback

soon – follow blog at digitalpublishing.ons.gov.uk

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LONGER TERM ISSUES AND CONSIDERATIONS -

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Building a more coherent picture of income and earnings

Potential to use administrative data and data linking

• FRS and DWP administrative data linked for first time in Income related Benefits

• ONS exploring use of administrative data to produce income statistics as part of the Census Transformation Programme

• Starting to develop feasibility projects to link data within ONS

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Improving accessibility and timeliness

Accessibility: • Data access and

sharing legislation

Timeliness• Potential for

increased use of nowcasting and estimation techniques

• Development of RTI data as consistent income data source for employees

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Moving forward together

• New work and improvements:

what are your views? Which should be developed further, what are your priorities?

• Short term: Compendium idea and options for improving self-employment data

• Longer term: what does a more coherent and accessible picture of income and earnings look like?

• How do we work together in the future?

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