Economic Status of the Household

Field: Economic Status of the Household

Description

The economic status of the household of the individual, as reported by FRS respondents, where:

The definition of a household used in the Family Resources Survey (FRS) is 'one person living alone or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address who share cooking facilities and share a living room, sitting room, or dining area'. So, for example, a group of students with a shared living room would be counted as a single household even if they did not eat together, but a group of bed-sits at the same address would not be counted as a single household. A household may consist of one or more benefit units, which in turn will consist of one or more people (adults and children) - see Family Type for more information.
For the analysis of working and workless households, households are classified according to whether they contain a working-age adult or pensioner who works, but the status of non-working pensioners is not considered, except in the case of those households where children live only with pensioners, in which case the status of all adults is included (as reported by all FRS respondents in the household).

Classification

Applicable to: All Individuals.

All adults in work: Individuals in a household where all working-age adults are in employment or are self-employed, or if there are no working-age adults in the household, at least one working pensioner.
At least one adult in work but not all: Individuals in a household where at least one working-age adult is in employment or is self-employed, or where a pensioner is in work if none of the working-age adults in the household are in work.
Workless households: Individuals in a household where no adult members are in employment or are self-employed. Within households, pensioners are excluded from the classifications if they are not working, and are included if they are working. So for example, a household with a pensioner in work, but a working-age person not in work, would be in the 'At least one adult in work, but not all' category. A household with all working-age adults in work and a pensioner not in work would be categorised as 'All adults in work'.
Not available (before 1996/97)

Number of categories: 4

Quality Statement

The economic status of the family classification has been revised to be in line with the International Labour Organisation economic status classification. This means that no economic status data is available for 1994/95 and 1995/96 as the relevant information was not collected in the Family Resources Survey for those years.

Further information can be found in the HBAI Quality and Methodology Report here.