Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF or LCFS)

Summary

Main Topics Household questionnaire: • The first part of the LCF/EFS questionnaire collects information about households; the majority of the questions are asked at a household-level, with the household reference person typically responding on behalf of the household as a whole. The household questionnaire includes questions on a range of subjects including family relationships, ethnicity, employment details and the ownership of household durables. It is also the source of all expenditure information not recorded in the LCF/EFS diary; principally that which concerns regular payments typically made by all households and large, infrequently purchased items such as vehicles, package holidays and home improvements. Individual questionnaire: • The income questionnaire follows on immediately from the household questionnaire and collects the key person-level variables used on the survey. The principal components of the LCF income questionnaire are the sections covering income from employment, benefits and assets. These together form an overview of the total income received by each household, as well as each household member individually. LCF/EFS Diary: • In addition to the two questionnaires, each individual aged 16 years and over in the household is asked to keep diary records of daily expenditure for two weeks. The raw diary data is held in a separate file, but is not made publicly available for confidentiality reasons. Therefore, users should be aware that the LCF/EFS dataset available from the Archive includes only derived variables from the expenditure diary.

Type of data

Data Source
Survey

Type of Study
Crosssection regular

Data gathering method
Face-to-face
Other: Face-to-face interview; Diaries (Only derived variables from the diary are included in the dataset, as the raw diary data are not released to the public for confidentiality reasons.)

Access to data

Conditions of access
Data are available from the UK Data Service (previously the Economic and Social Data Service, ESDS): http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/ The website contains detailed information on conditions of access, and it is also possible to contact the UK Data Service by phone: +44 (0)1206 872143, or by email: help@ukdataservice.ac.uk

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
Anonymised microdata

Formats available
Survey data from the UK Data Service are usually available to download in SPSS, Stata and tab-delimited (suitable for use in MS Excel) formats.

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
A household expenditure survey has been conducted each year in the United Kingdom since 1957. From 1957 to March 2001, the Family Expenditure Survey (FES) and National Food Survey (NFS) provided information on household expenditure patterns and food consumption. In April 2001 these surveys were combined to form the Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS), which completely replaced both series. From January 2008, the EFS became known as the Living Costs and Food (LCF) module of the Integrated Household Survey (IHS). As a consequence of this change, the EFS questionnaire was altered to accommodate the insertion of a core set of questions, common to all of the separate modules which together comprise the IHS. Some of these core questions are simply questions which were previously asked in the same or a similar format on all of the IHS component surveys (including the EFS). Number of units in 2010: 5,116 households in Great Britain, and 147 in Northern Ireland `Note: Older people are represented in this data source (approximately) according to their proportion in the population. In 2011, over one third of the total UK population (and approximately 40 per cent of the adult population 16+) was aged 50 and over.`

First year of collection
2001 (1957 for certain aspects)

Stratification if applicable
The data includes a variety of demographic variables, including age and sex. The sample is stratified.

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
Countries (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland) Government Office Regions (NUTS1) More detailed spatial data may be available under Special License.

Age range
All ages

Statistical representativeness
Other, please specify

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) is a continuous household survey conducted within the UK, examining household expenditure and income. The LCF began in 2001 as the result of bringing together the Family Expenditure Survey (FES) and National Food Survey (NFS). Both surveys were well established and important sources of information for government and the wider community, charting changes and patterns in Britain's spending and food consumption since the 1950s. The survey continues to be primarily used to provide information for the Retail and Consumer Prices Indices, National Accounts estimates of household consumption expenditure, the analysis of the effect of taxes and benefits and trends in nutrition. The EFS was the result of more than two years' development work to bring together the FES and NFS; both survey series were well-established and important sources of information for government and the wider community, and had charted changes and patterns in spending and food consumption since the 1950s. Whilst the NFS and FES series are now finished, users should note that previous data from both series are still available from the UK Data Archive. The design of the LCF is based on the FES. The LCF includes all FES questions, as well as a selection from the NFS. Each individual aged 16 or over in the visited household is asked to keep diary records of daily expenditure for two weeks. Information about regular expenditure, such as rent and mortgage payment, is obtained during a household interview along with retrospective information on certain large, infrequent expenditures, such as those on vehicles. Detailed questions are asked about the income of each adult member of the household (aged 16 or over). Personal information such as age, sex and marital status are also recorded for each household member. The LCF interviews are spread evenly over the year to ensure that seasonal effects are accounted for.

Linkage

Standardisation
There is an ongoing cross-governmental programme of work in the UK which aims to develop and improve standardised inputs and outputs for use in official statistics. This is known as harmonisation, and is led by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). While this work primarily affects government-run surveys, the results have an impact on most national UK data sources. Furthermore, harmonisation has important benefits for all researchers using these surveys, and not just government statisticians. For more information, see: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/harmonisation/harmonisation-index-page/index.html This survey uses a number of harmonised measures, including the European Standard Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP)

Possibility of linkage among databases
Data are anonymised

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
In addition to unit non-response, the data include item non-response and may be subject to other errors that are typical of surveys and censuses. This data source is used to prepare official statistics, which are required to meet quality standards. These standards are monitored by the UK Statistics Authority, according to the statutory authority provided by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/national-statistician/producers-of-official-statistics/index.html http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/national-statistician/types-of-official-statistics/index.html For more information on data quality, see the survey documentation on the UK Data Service website.

Breaks
Apart from the variations in design (see Coverage), there are no major breaks for this data source.

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection
In general, the consistency of this data source is good. For more information on data quality, see the survey documentation on the UK Data Service website.

Governance

Contact information
Office for National Statistics
Customer Contact Centre
Government Buildings, Cardiff Road
NP10 8XG Newport, South Wales United Kingdom Phone: +44 (0) 1633 455678.
Email: socialsurveys(at)ons.gsi.gov.uk
Url: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/

Timeliness, transparency
Data are available about 12 months after the end of fieldwork