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, and spending on rent or mortgage)
- caring needs and responsibilities
- disability
- pension participation
- levels of savings and types of investment
- self employment
- household food security and food bank use
- childcare
Find future FRS publication dates in our statistics release calendar and other DWP statistics on the Statistics at DWP page.
Email team.frs@dwp.gov.uk with feedback and queries, or to ask for a copy of the FRS questionnaire (the question instructions document).
Next release date and key information
The next release of the FRS will be published in March 2027.
For further information on planned developments and methodological changes for this release, please see the Family Resources Survey: Release Strategy.
Changes to the latest release
Family Resources Survey (FRS) sample size
The fieldwork target for 2024 to 2025 was an achieved sample of 20,000 households. However, fieldwork continued to be challenging. Key issues included the recruitment and retention of interviewers, alongside increasing rates of respondent refusal or non-contact. As a result, the final achieved sample for 2024 to 2025 was close to 16,300 households.
Integrating administrative data into the FRS and related outputs
The 2024 to 2025 release features an improved approach to using administrative data in place of survey responses. Benefits information for the major state benefits and tax credits is now based on administrative data sources. This change reduces the underreporting seen in the FRS and improves overall data quality. Further information is provided in the technical paper.
Updates to previous FRS years
For the survey years back to 2021 to 2022 we have updated all FRS datasets for the integration of DWP administrative data on state benefits and tax credits. This change has been applied in the same way as the new 2024 to 2025 survey year. These datasets will be released via the same channels as the new 2024 to 2025 dataset. We have also updated Stat Xplore data for these developments, in the years back to 2021 to 2022.
In Summer 2026, we will release updated datasets and estimates for 2018 to 2019 to 2020 to 2021 inclusive. These remaining back‑series years will also be made available via the UK Data Service and the ONS Secure Research Service at that time.
Revised outputs for Education variable (EDUCQUAL) on historical FRS datasets
Following the issues identified with the EDUCQUAL variable (formerly DVHIQUAL) on delivery to DWP, we have now received revised values for the 2021 to 2022 and 2020 to 2021 survey years. The corrected values for 2021 to 2022 are incorporated in this new release. The updated 2020 to 2021 values will be included in the new dataset scheduled for publication in Summer 2026. Prior years will not be adjusted, due to the data deletion policy under the governance of UK GDPR.
Changes to tables: State Support Categories and Methodology Reporting
We have reviewed and updated all tables that provide a breakdown by state support. For 2024 to 2025, several rows, including Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Income Support, have been removed as the migration to Universal Credit has resulted in too few cases to produce reliable estimates.
Following feedback from the Scottish Government, we have also updated the benefit breakdowns so that Personal Independence Payment (PIP) figures now include Adult Disability Payment (ADP), and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) figures now include Child Disability Payment (CDP). These were previously captured only within the ‘non‑income‑related benefit’ category. ADP now also appears in the methodology table M_6A, which compares the grossed estimates of benefit recipients in the survey data with the total benefit caseload from administrative sources.
Changes to tables: Savings and investments by ethnicity, and bands
We have reinstated households’ amount of savings by ethnicity table (Table 7.13), to the Savings and Investment chapter.
Note that all tables in this chapter now use the updated savings bands, culminating in a “£500,000 or more” band.
Changes to tables: Food bank usage has updated Urban–Rural Classifications
This year’s release includes updated urban–rural classifications: the 2021 classification for England and Wales (based on the 2021 Census) and the 2022 Scottish Government Urban Rural Classification. These updated classifications have also been applied in Chapter 9, Table 9.23, which reports household food bank usage by rural–urban category.
Changes to variables, further to the questionnaire consultation
A number of changes were implemented in the 2024 to 2025 FRS questionnaire following the annual consultation. These included updates to marital status categories, to harmonise with other major surveys and the Census; identification of participation in Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) pension schemes; removal and imputation of certain Council Tax questions to improve survey efficiency; enhancements to childcare attendance questions; and the removal of mandatory Class 2 National Insurance Contributions (NICs). Evaluation and quality assurance of these changes are now complete, and the updated content is reflected in the 2024 to 2025 dataset.
Introduction of Council Tax Reduction check
Following the above change to Council Tax questions in the survey, a stricter cleaning regime was applied to Council Tax Reduction (CTR) amount responses. Whilst the prevalence of CTR was similar to the previous survey year, the average amount received is lower.
Average amounts cannot be compared between FYE 2025 and earlier years due to this methodology change, which improves the accuracy of the data this year and going forward. Further details can be found in the FRS background information and methodology document.
Introduction of Full-time / Part-time Consistency check
This year we introduced a new check to improve consistency between reported full-time or part‑time status (FTPT) and usual weekly hours worked (DVUSHR), both held in the JOB table. The check identifies cases where someone reports full‑time work but records 23 hours per week or fewer, or reports part-time work but records more than 32 hours per week. Using additional information from JOBHOURS, SELFDEMP and USUHR, these inconsistencies are corrected where appropriate.
Removal of Cost of Living payments
For the 2024 to 2025 survey year, the Warm Home Discount (WHD) is the only Cost of Living support scheme that continues to be included. WHD has been assigned to households interviewed between October 2024 and March 2025 where they meet the eligibility criteria for Core Group 1, which applies to households containing someone in receipt of the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit. From the 2023 to 2024 survey year onwards, administrative data has also enabled assignment of WHD to eligible households in Core Group 2. WHD continues to form part of calculated income variables within the FRS dataset for 2024 to 2025.
Stat‑Xplore Update
The changes outlined above — including the new savings bands, the updated state‑support breakdowns and the new urban-rural classifications — will be reflected in the Stat‑Xplore tables. In addition, to mirror the FRS publication, we have introduced ‘Arab’ as a separate ethnic group category rather than grouping it within ‘Other ethnic group’.
Latest release
FRS data on Stat Xplore
UK-level FRS data is available from FYE 2003 to FYE 2025 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 describes the potential release of new statistics within the publication and announces any other developments, for both 2025 to 2026 and 2026 to 2027.
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.
Quality assessment of data sources
This quality assessment report contains information on the FRS data sources used by DWP, as well as quality assessments on each of them. The assessment considers the journey of the data from its source, through processing and analysis and ultimately to publication.
This report aims to provide the users of the FRS data with a similar framework of assurance for survey data, as they could expect to see for an administrative data journey from source to publication. The report also recognises the development of the FRS to make use of administrative data to improve quality.
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 or the ONS Secure Research Service.
FRS related statistics:
- Households below average income
- Pensioner’s incomes statistics
- Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up
- Children in Low Income Families (CiLIF) Statistics Development
- Separated Families Statistics
Other related statistics:
Evaluation of the Family Resources Survey
Family Resources Survey Transformation
Updates to this page
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Updates to align with publication of 'Family Resources Survey: financial year 2024 to 2025'
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Changes made including adding Children in Low Income Families (CiLIF) Statistics Development and Separated Families Statistics to the background information and guidance. New information about the additional poverty measure named ‘Below Average Resources’ (BAR) added to the page.
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Added contact details to ask for FRS question instructions
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Added the latest release "Family Resources Survey: financial year 2023 to 2024" and the new quality assessment report.
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Added information to the page that the next release of the Family Resources Survey will be published on 27 March 2025.
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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.