Support #2226
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svb Savings Variables in Wave 13
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Description
Dear Understanding Society User Support Team,
I hope you are well. I wanted to ask for some clarification concerning the svb variables in wave 13. They seem to capture estimated amounts of savings for different bank account types when a respondent does not know how much their account of that type contains (similar to the debtc variables). However, I cannot find any documentation which specifies what the thresholds for each of the svb variables are?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Dan Pinhay
Updated by Understanding Society User Support Team 7 days ago
- Category changed from Data analysis to Questionnaire content
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Hi Dan,
Looking at the questionnaire (https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/documentation/main-survey/questionnaires/6614-main-survey-questionnaire-w13.pdf), the svb variables use predefined threshold values to estimate savings amounts when exact balances are unknown. The thresholds vary by account type, as follows (for each the question wording is "Would that amount to £ [AMOUNT] or more?"):
• SVB1 thresholds (first branching question):
o Current account: £1,000
o Savings/deposit accounts: £1,000
o NS&I savings accounts: £2,500
o ISA (cash only): £1,000
o ISA (stocks and shares or PEPs): £1,000
o Premium Bonds: £200
o Other types of savings accounts: £1,000
• SVB2 thresholds (next level branching):
o Current account: £5,000
o Savings/deposit accounts: £5,000
o NS&I savings accounts: £10,000
o ISA (cash only): £5,000
o ISA (stocks and shares or PEPs): £5,000
o Premium Bonds: £500
o Other types of savings accounts: £5,000
• SVB3 thresholds:
o Current account: £25,000
o Savings/deposit accounts: £25,000
o NS&I savings accounts: £50,000
o ISA (cash only): £25,000
o ISA (stocks and shares or PEPs): £25,000
o Premium Bonds: £5,000
o Other types of savings accounts: £25,000
• SVB4 thresholds (lower than SVB1):
o Current account: £500
o Savings/deposit accounts: £500
o NS&I savings accounts: £500
o ISA (cash only): £500
o ISA (stocks and shares or PEPs): £500
o Premium Bonds: £100
o Other types of savings accounts: £500
• SVB5 thresholds (highest values):
o Current account: £100,000
o Savings/deposit accounts: £100,000
o NS&I savings accounts: £250,000
o ISA (cash only): £100,000
o ISA (stocks and shares or PEPs): £100,000
o Premium Bonds: £10,000
o Other types of savings accounts: £100,000
Then, looking at the variables, they follow the pattern m_svbX_Y, where:
X (1, 2, 3, 5, 4) refers to different savings threshold levels:
svb1: Initial threshold (e.g., £1,000 for many accounts)
svb2: Higher threshold (e.g., £5,000)
svb3: Even higher threshold (e.g., £25,000)
svb5: Maximum threshold (e.g., £100,000)
svb4: Lower than svb1 (e.g., £500)
Y (1, 2, 3, …, 6, 97) represents different savings account types:
1: Current account
2: Savings/deposit account
3: NS&I savings account
4: ISA (cash)
5: ISA (stocks and shares or PEPs)
6: Premium Bonds
97: Other savings accounts
I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Piotr Marzec
UKHLS User Support
Updated by Daniel Pinhay 7 days ago
Hi Piotr,
Thank you so much for this, how the savings variables are structured is significantly clearer now (and apologies as I completely missed this in the questionnaire guide)!
Thanks again,
Dan