Developing deprivation questions for the Family Resources Survey

Abstract

This report presents analysis conducted by academics from the Personal Finance Research Centre at the University of Bristol. The main focus of the report is to develop a set of deprivation questions for use on the Family Resources Survey. The analysis uses a number of different statistical techniques, such as latent class analysis and factor analysis, to derive a set of deprivation questions based on those questions used in other national surveys such as the Millennium Study of Poverty and Social Exclusion and the Families and Children Study.

The authors propose a set of questions which attempt to capture details of both adult and child deprivation, as well as questions around subjective well-being and the use of credit/debt. The questions have been designed to feed into the material deprivation and low income element of the Government's child poverty measure.