The first batch of invitations to take part in the five yearly Household Expenditure Survey are being sent out to randomly selected addresses this week.
As with the Wellbeing Survey, people who receive a letter are encouraged to take part. The survey runs for a whole year and the aim is to get at least 1,000 households to take part in total.
Each household records their spending for a fortnight within the year.
The results are primarily used to update the inflation indices in order to keep them aligned with average expenditure patterns, but they are also used for modelling the expected impacts of proposed policy changes and are made public for general use. Following the last survey, some new inflation indices were introduced; the Household Cost Indices (more information on inflation indices can be found here).
Helen Walton, Head of Data and Analysis said: “If you get a letter from us or a visit from a fieldworker, it would be fantastic if you could agree to take part. The data is vital to keeping the inflation indices, including RPI and RPIX which get used in so many settings, representative of our Island’s households.
“The survey is in two parts – a fieldworker assisted questionnaire and then a spending diary to complete over the next fortnight. It can be booked in at a time that is convenient to you and the data you provide will be kept strictly confidential. To thank you for contributing your time, once you have completed both parts of the survey, you can either be entered into one of four cash prize draws, each with three prizes: £150, £100 and £50; or you can collect a cash payment of £20 for the first adult plus a further £10 for each other person aged 16 or over and £5 for each person aged 15 or under in the household.
“We know long forms, particularly on financial topics, can be intimidating or unappealing, but one of our fieldworkers will take you through the questions and be there to help if anything is unclear. In the past, it has helped households better understand where they might be able to make some savings and our fieldworkers have information on financial support, if needed.”
The survey will be running from October 2023 until October 2024. For more information, please visit here.
