Living Costs and Food Survey

Key facts

Survey coverage:	United Kingdom
Achieved sample:	6,140 households
Response rate:	53%
Type of survey:	Face-to-face interview + diary

Why is the survey carried out?

The Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS) took over from the Family Expenditure Survey (FES) and the National Food Survey (NFS) and started in April 2001. From January 2008, the EFS questionnaire has become known as the Living Costs and Food (LCF) module of the Integrated Household Survey (IHS). As a consequence of this change, the EFS questionnaire has been altered to accommodate the insertion of a core set of questions, common to all of the separate modules which together comprise the IHS. In addition to the LCF, the other surveys incorporated into the IHS in January 2008 were the General Household Survey (GHS), the Omnibus Survey (OMN) and the English Housing Conditions Survey (EHCS). These surveys are now called the General Lifestyle Survey (GLF), Opinions Survey (OPN) and the English Housing Survey (EHS) respectively.

The LCF is a continuous survey of household expenditure, food consumption and income. The primary uses are to provide information about spending patterns for the Retail Price Index, and about food consumption and nutrition. Like the FES, it also feeds into estimates of consumers' expenditure in the National Accounts, is used for tax benefit modelling and is an important source of economic and social data for government and other research agencies.

The LCF is commissioned by the Social Survey Division (SSD) of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The main customers are divisions within ONS, DEFRA and a number of other government departments. SSD is responsible for the survey design and carries out fieldwork in Great Britain, while the Central Survey Unit of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency undertakes the fieldwork in Northern Ireland. SSD carries out the coding and editing of all the data, quality control, and supply of data to customers. SSD will also report the expenditure and income data while DEFRA will publish the detailed food results and nutrition information.

How is the survey done?

Information for the LCF is collected from people living in private households. The survey is made up of:

• a comprehensive household questionnaire which asks about regular household bills and expenditure on major but infrequent purchases;
• an individual questionnaire for each adult (aged 16 or over) which asks detailed questions about their income;
• a diary of all personal expenditure kept by each adult for two weeks, and of home grown and wild food brought into the home;
• a simplified diary kept by children aged 7 to 15 years, also kept for two weeks.

The set sample in Great Britain is 12,000 addresses a year which are selected from the Postcode Address File (a comprehensive list of all delivery points - postboxes). About 10% of the addresses prove to be ineligible because they are for institutions and businesses rather than private households. In Northern Ireland addresses are selected from the Rating Valuation List.

Data for the LCF is collected using Computer Assisted Interviewing and paper diary questionnaires.

Response to the survey

Full response is expected from about 53% of households that are eligible for the survey. The LCF operates strict response rules - households count as fully responding only if:

• the household expenditure questionnaire is complete; and
• all adults complete an income questionnaire (without refusing any item of information) and keep a two-week diary of all their expenditure.

However, information is accepted from households where a diary is missing, provided that the diary of the main shopper is present. The missing diaries are imputed, by copying diaries from similar households. No more than 3% of cases are imputed. The advantage is to reduce the bias against large households.

COICOP

One major change from April 2001 has been the use of a new set of codes for goods and services in place of the codes used in the FES and NFS, which were unique to the two surveys. The new frame is the United Nations Statistical Commission's Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) as developed further by Eurostat. An additional level of hierarchy has been developed for the EFS to improve the mapping to the previous FES and NFS codes.

Where can the results be found?

The results of the survey will be published by the two departments. ONS will continue to publish the data in 'Family Spending'. DEFRA will publish the results on food consumption and nutrition in 'Family Food'.

For more information about the Living Costs and Food Survey or other surveys that SSD carries out contact:
SSD Project Support Branch Tel: +44 (0)20 7533 5500 or e-mail: ssdpsb@ons.gov.uk

This page last revised: Friday, 25 September 2009