Understanding Society User Support

Many thanks for your enquiry. The Understanding Society team is looking into it and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Best wishes,
Stephanie Auty - Understanding Society User Support Officer

Dear Anisa,

There are two parts to answer to this.

Firstly, the data are collected at the individual level but generally they are intended for use at the household level (or to make things slightly more complicated, at the benefit unit level). So people will report receiving benefits, but they are received on behalf of a group of people within the household and the fact that for example one member of a couple reports state pension and the other does not, should not be taken to mean that the person not reporting it does not benefit from it.

Secondly, sometimes people report receiving benefits jointly. We are interested in this information to avoid double counting income when we sum to the household level if more than one person reports the same source, and in creating derived income variables we adjust so that the total summed across all household members should be correct. So if one person reported the source as joint but the other did not report it we would not adjust, but we would if both people reported it.

Best wishes,
Stephanie Auty - Understanding Society User Support Officer