Average UK household incomes taxes and benefits by household type, tenure status, household characteristics and long-term trends in income inequality.

Estimates of UK regional gross disposable household income (GDHI) at current prices for ITL1, ITL2 and ITL3 regions.

This article examines the effect of VAT on average disposable income for both low income and high income households. Source agency: Office for National Statistics Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: The effect of VAT on household disposable income

3-year average median equivalised weekly income after housing costs (AHC) indexed to 2022/23 prices. This dataset is one of the Greater London Authority's measures of Economic Fairness. Click here to find out more.

Disposable Personal Income in the United Kingdom increased to 443916 GBP Million in the second quarter of 2025 from 442635 GBP Million in the first quarter of 2025. This dataset provides - United Kingdom Households Disposable Income - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Disposable Income United Kingdom is available at Postal Code Sector level and refers to an individual or household's net income once taxes and other employer deductions are taken into account. In other words, it is the amount of money an individual has for spending on essential and non-essential goods and services.

Main tables from the Effects of taxes and benefits on household income publication from 1977, including average incomes, taxes and benefits and household characteristics of all, retired and non-retired households in the UK by quintile and decile groups.

Average weekly household expenditure on goods and services in the UK. Data are shown by region, age, income (including equivalised) group (deciles and quintiles), economic status, socio-economic class, housing tenure, output area classification, urban and rural areas (Great Britain only), place of purchase and household composition.

The effects of direct and indirect taxation and benefits received in cash or kind on household income, across the generations and by age.

This data is estimated by combining multiple years of the Living Costs and Food Survey from 1978 to financial year ending March 2017 and the Household Finances Statistics, from financial year ending 2018 to financial year ending 2021 with the exception of 1979 and 1981. All financial amounts are adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) excluding Council Tax, to their financial year ending March 2018. For example, the mean disposable income for those aged 35 and born in the 1970’s (£35,752) is estimated by taking the average (in real terms) of the household disposable income for these people across the combined dataset.

Median earnings of residents - Gross Weekly Pay (£) This measure is the median weekly earnings for full-time employees (working 39.1 hours per week – 2017 average) where half the workers earn above that amount, and half earn below that amount This gives an indication of living standards people are able to enjoy through their disposable income. Changes in the composition of the workforce, demonstrated by changes in median earnings, can show the effect of council’s Economic Strategy. For example, creation of lower paid jobs, or loss of highly-paid jobs, can both act to reduce the median.

Provides information on potential living standards, as determined by disposable income. Source agency: Social Development (Northern Ireland) Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: Households Below Average Income Reports (Northern Ireland)

The Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data presents information on living standards in the UK based on household income measures for the financial year.

HBAI uses equivalised disposable household income as a proxy for living standards in order to allow comparisons of the living standards of different types of households (that is, income is adjusted to take into account variations in the size and composition of the households in a process known as equivalisation). A key assumption made in HBAI is that all individuals in the household benefit equally from the combined income of the household. This enables the total equivalised income of the household to be used as a proxy for the standard of living of each household member.

In line with international best practice, the income measures used in HBAI are subject to several statistical adjustments and, as such, are not always directly relatable to income amounts as they might be understood by people on a day-to-day basis. These adjustments, however, allow consistent comparison over time and across households of different sizes and compositions. HBAI uses variants of CPI inflation when estimating how incomes are changing in real terms over time.

The main data source used in this study is the Family Resources Survey (FRS), a continuous cross-sectional survey. The FRS normally has a sample of 19,000 - 20,000 UK households. The use of survey data means that HBAI estimates are subject to uncertainty, which can affect how changes should be interpreted, especially in the short term. Analysis of geographies below the regional level is not recommended from this data.

Further information and the latest publication can be found on the gov.uk HBAI webpage. The HBAI team want to provide user-friendly datasets and clearer documentation, so please contact team.hbai@dwp.gov.uk if you have any suggestions or feedback on the new harmonised datasets and documentation.

An earlier HBAI study, Institute for Fiscal Studies Households Below Average Income Dataset, 1961-1991, is held under SN 3300.

Latest Edition Information

For the 19th edition (April 2025), resamples data have been added to the study alongside supporting documentation. Main data back to 1994/95 have been updated to latest-year prices, and the documentation has been updated accordingly.

Using the HBAI files

Users should note that either 7-Zip or a recent version of WinZip is needed to unzip the HBAI download zip files, due to their size. The inbuilt Windows compression software will not handle them correctly.

Labelling of variables
Users should note that many variables across the resamples files do not include full variable or value labels. This information can be found easily in the documentation - see the Harmonised Data Variables Guide.

HBAI versions

The HBAI datasets are available in two versions at the UKDS:

1. End User Licence (EUL) (Anonymised) Datasets:

These datasets contain no names, addresses, telephone numbers, bank account details, NINOs or any personal details that can be considered disclosive under the terms of the ONS Disclosure Control guidance. Changes made to the datasets are as follows:

• All ages above 80 are instead top-coded to 80 years of age.
• The variable for the amount of Council Tax liability for the household and pensioner flags for the head and spouse have been removed.
• All amount variables have been rounded to the nearest £1.
• A very small number of large households (with 10 or more individuals) have been removed from the dataset.

2. Secure Access Datasets:

Secure Access datasets for HBAI are held under SN 7196. The Secure Access data are not subject to the same edits as the EUL version and are, therefore, more disclosive and subject to strict access conditions. They are currently only available to UK HE/FE applicants. Prospective users of the Secure Access version of the HBAI must fulfil additional requirements beyond those associated with the EUL datasets.

Annual estimates of UK regional gross disposable household income (GDHI) for local authorities by International Territorial Level (ITL) region.

Annual estimates of UK regional gross disposable household income (GDHI) for combined authorities and city regions.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The English Housing Survey (EHS) Fuel Poverty Datasets are comprised of fuel poverty variables derived from the EHS, and a number of EHS variables commonly used in fuel poverty reporting. The EHS is a continuous national survey commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government (MHCLG) that collects information about people's housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England.

Safeguarded and Special Licence Versions
Similar to the main EHS, two versions of the Fuel Poverty dataset are available from 2014 onwards. The Special Licence version contains additional, more detailed, variables, and is therefore subject to more restrictive access conditions. Users should check the Safeguarded Licence (previously known as End User Licence (EUL)) version first to see whether it meets their needs, before making an application for the Special Licence version.

The English Housing Survey: Fuel Poverty Dataset, 2022: Special Licence is the outcome of analysis conducted to produce estimates of fuel poverty in England in 2022 undertaken by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

Fuel poverty in England is measured using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) indicator, which considers a household to be fuel poor if:

• it is living in a property with an energy efficiency rating of band D, E, F or G as determined by the most up-to-date Fuel Poverty Energy Efficiency Rating (FPEER) Methodology; and
• its disposable income (income after housing costs (AHC) and energy costs) would be below the poverty line. The poverty line (income poverty) is defined as an equivalised disposable income of less than 60 per cent of the national median in Section 2 of the ONS publication 'Persistent poverty in the UK and EU: 2017'.

The Low Income Low Energy Efficiency model is a dual indicator, which allows us to measure not only the extent of the problem (how many fuel poor households there are), but also the depth of the problem (how badly affected each fuel poor household is). The depth of fuel poverty is calculated using the fuel poverty gap. This is the reduction in fuel costs needed for a household to not be in fuel poverty. This is either the change in required fuel costs associated with increasing the energy efficiency of a fuel poor household to a Fuel Poverty Energy Efficiency Rating (FPEER) of band C or reducing the costs sufficiently to meet the income threshold.

The fuel poverty dataset is derived from the English Housing Survey, 2022 database created by the MHCLG. This database is constructed from fieldwork carried out between April 2021 and March 2023. The midpoint of this period is April 2022, which can be considered as the reference date for this dataset.

A brief summary of each of the variables included in the English Housing Survey: Fuel Poverty Dataset, 2022: Special Licence dataset is included in the study documentation. The variables can be grouped into the following categories:

• Low Income Low Energy Efficiency fuel poverty indicator variables
• income and fuel costs variables
• 10 per cent affordability indicator variables
• additional fuel poverty variables
• English Housing Survey variables
• policy eligibility flags
• income split variables
• energy cost variables
• energy use variables
• weights
• variables introduced in 2015 data release (first published 2017)

This section outlines the assumptions we have used as a basis for Barnet Council’s Municipal Recycling & Waste Strategy and the various evidence collated that supports them D1 - Over the next 15 years there will be significant household growth in Barnet, which will lead to an increase in total tonnages of waste collected D2 - The smaller the number of people per household the more waste is generated per person. An increase in the number of flats in Barnet is likely to mean fewer people per household and more waste generated per resident D3 - Waste production is linked to the economy. When disposable income grows waste production increases. Therefore there is likely to be growth in household waste as the economy grows D4 - Resident behaviour and changes in the use of technology will result in paper tonnage continuing to decrease and cardboard tonnage continuing to increase D5 - Long term changes in waste composition are unknown but light weighting of packaging is likely to continue, which will present a challenge to the Council in meeting recycling targets D6 - Barnet has a population inflow of around 8 per cent on a yearly basis. This has significant performance and cost implications in relation to engaging and communicating with new residents and means there could be benefits achieved from delivering services or commuications jointly with other authorities D7 - There is no evidence for this assumption, therefore it is not supported Return to Assumptions & Evidence Return to consultation page

Average weekly household expenditure on goods and services in the UK. Data are shown by region, age, income (including equivalised) group (deciles and quintiles), economic status, socio-economic class, housing tenure, output area classification, urban and rural areas (Great Britain only), place of purchase and household composition.

GDHI is the amount of money individuals in the household sector have available for spending or saving. This is money left over after expenditure associated with income, for example taxes, social contributions, property ownership and provision for future pension income. It should be noted that these estimates relate to totals for all individuals within the household sector for a region rather than to an actual average household or family unit. GDHI per head estimates give values for each person, not each household.