Family Resources Survey
An annual report that provides facts and figures about the incomes and living circumstances of households and families in the UK.
The Family Resources Survey (FRS) is a continuous household survey which collects information on a representative sample of private households in the United Kingdom. These annual publications provide statistics and commentary on:
- income from all sources
- housing tenure
- caring needs and responsibilities
- disability
- pension participation
- savings and investment
- self employment
- household food security
- childcare
Updates within the latest release of the Family Resources Survey
The latest release of the Family Resources Survey was published on 21 March 2024.
Childcare
For the first time, this year’s FRS publication includes a new Childcare chapter, giving users summary tables and charts of the data collected by the survey. A selection of childcare options has also been added to the FRS section of Stat-Xplore (the Family database), enabling users to create their own tables of statistics.
Cost of Living Support Schemes
During 2022 to 2023 the government announced and implemented additional support to families with several cost of living support schemes, depending on peoples’ circumstances.
The FRS now includes these payments as part of the income variables on the FRS dataset. Therefore, any FRS published table using variables that include the calculation of benefit unit and household income will reflect the cost of living payments that the person or their household would have received.
Rural-Urban Classification update
The FRS annual report made use of the Rural-Urban classification variables for the first time in the 2021 to 2022 publication of the Household Food Bank Usage tables.
These tables have now been updated to reflect the Census 2011 Rural-Urban classification, and as such the 2022 to 2023 publication shows tables for both 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023, using the Census 2011 classification. Further detail of the differences between these can be found on the Office for National Statistics’ Rural-Urban classifications page.
Level of Educational Attainment
Development work to improve reporting on categories of level of Education has identified a separate issue with the variable EDUCQUAL. This variable is used to present estimates of household food security status and household food bank usage, by educational attainment of head of household.
These estimates are not available as of 21 March 2024. Two breakdowns included in tables 9.5 and 9.16 have not been published and the breakdown has been removed from Stat Xplore.
Savings and Investments
Previously, the reported income bands were adjusted, to address the need for more granularity at both ends of the income distribution. The same approach has now been applied, in the 2022 to 2023 publication, to the bands used for levels of savings and investments.
Tables 7.9, 7.10, 7.11 and 7.12 have been published, as two variations. Those with suffix ‘a’ show the original savings bands, while those with suffix ‘b’ show the revised bands; to allow consistency for users.
FRS Transformation: integration of administrative data
We have published initial results of methodological research into integrating administrative data into the FRS. These results focus on DWP benefits and have been released as a separate technical report.
Below Average Resources
DWP are developing a new additional poverty measure. The first Official Statistics in Development publication in the series was published on 18 January 2024. DWP sought user feedback on the new poverty measure through an analytical consultation running from 18 January to 11 April 2024. The consultation has now closed.
Find future FRS publication dates in our statistics release calendar and other DWP statistics on the Statistics at DWP page.
Please contact team.frs@dwp.gov.uk with feedback and queries.
Latest release
FRS data on Stat Xplore
UK-level FRS data is available from FYE 2003 to FYE 2023 on the Stat-Xplore online tool. You can use Stat-Xplore to create your own FRS analysis.
Note that regional and ethnicity analysis are not available on the database because multiple-year averages cannot currently be produced. These are available in the FRS tables.
FRS information is available at:
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an adult level
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a child level
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an individual level
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a family level (benefit unit level)
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a household level
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a household food security level
We are seeking feedback from users on this development release of FRS data on Stat-Xplore. Email team.frs@dwp.gov.uk with your comments.
Release strategy
This release strategy acts as the formal notice of changes to future releases of the FRS publication.
The strategy highlights the confirmed changes to the 2023 to 2024 questionnaire and dataset, describes the potential release of new statistics within the publication and announces any other developments, for both 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025.
The FRS release strategy is not a static document; it will be updated as plans develop, to provide users with details of latest developments.
The development of these statistics follows DWP’s statistical work programme.
Previous releases
The FRS has been publishing annual reports since 1994. The reports for 2010 onwards are on GOV.UK and you can find the earlier statistical releases on The National Archives website.
Background information and guidance
Access the underlying data used to produce the statistics through the UK data archive.
FRS related statistics:
- Households below average income
- Pensioners’ incomes series
- Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up
Other related statistics:
Evaluation of the Family Resources Survey
Family Resources Survey Transformation
Last updated 21 March 2024 + show all updates
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Updated landing page information and added link to Family Resources Survey: financial year 2022 to 2023 and added new section and link 'FRS transformation'.
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Added information to the page about changes to the next release of the Family Resources Survey. The next release will be published on 21 March 2024.
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Added a link to the latest Family Resources Survey: financial year 2021 to 2022.
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Added information about the next release of the Family Resources Survey, due to be published on 23 March 2023.
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Added information about a new user guide for the Family Resources Survey data on Stat-Xplore.
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Added a link to the latest Family Resources Survey: financial year 2020 to 2021.
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Added a link to the latest Family Resources Survey: financial year 2019 to 2020.
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Added a note about the information in the next release of the Family Resources Survey report, this will be published on 25 March 2021.
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Added a link to the Family Resources Survey: financial year 2018 to 2019.
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Added Family Resources Survey: financial year 2017/18.
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Added Family Resources Survey: financial year 2016/17.
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Added Family Resources Survey: financial year 2015/16.
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Added Family Resources Survey: financial year 2014/15.
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Published Family Resources Survey: financial year 2013/14.
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Added 'Family Resources Survey – Benefit Block Pilot' research.
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Published 2012 to 2013 survey statistics.
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Published 3 new guidance documents: Uncertainty in Family Resources Survey-based analysis; Family Resources Survey: grossing methodology review and 2011 census updates; and Initial review of the Family Resources Survey weighting scheme.
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Published next release date for these statistics (1 July 2014).
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Added next release date
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First published.