A major study of household expenditure in Guernsey begins today (Tuesday).
The States’ next Household Expenditure Survey, which gathers information about the goods and services that are bought by people that live in Guernsey, will run for 12 months.
The information gathered is anonymised and then used by both the States and the public. for a range of things, including to update the Retail Prices Index (RPI) basket, to ensure it remains accurate and relevant to what people in Guernsey spend their money on.
In turn, changes in RPI affect tax allowances, Social Security benefit rates, pension payments, alimony maintenance payments, wage negotiations and rental price reviews.
The information is available for market or social research at www.gov.gg/household
To ensure the survey results in a detailed and representative picture of spending in Guernsey, more than 1,000 households need to take part, representing a cross-section of the community.
Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez said: “They will be used to inform various States policies as well as by employers, estate agents, pension providers and others. The Survey includes questions about what you spend your money on, which will be used to keep Guernsey inflation rates relevant to islanders. It also includes questions about the packaging your shopping comes in, which is very topical at the moment and will help inform our waste and recycling strategy.”
“We would really like all sorts of households to take part. There is no such thing as an average or typical household: we are all different and that needs to be reflected in the mix of respondents. Households with any level of income can take part – single person households, large families, those that are self-sufficient and big spending households – so I’d like to encourage everyone to get involved, and to thank everyone that does.”
Helen Walton, Head of Data & Analysis, said: “We’ve made significant improvements to the survey format since last time. Due to the extra information we can now get from the electronic census, we no longer need to ask lots of questions about household incomes, which makes the survey a lot shorter and less intrusive.”
“We also got rid of the long paper questionnaire, which we know many people found off-putting in the past. Instead, one of our team of fieldworkers will guide you through the questions on a laptop computer. Plus, the spending diary part can be completed wholly or partially online if that is most convenient for you. We recognise that completing the survey is still not a small task, but it is really important that we get enough households to join in. So, each household that takes part will be offered the opportunity to either be entered into a quarterly prize draw to win up to £500 or receive a £25 voucher towards a meal at one of Randall’s local restaurants.”
Visit www.gov.gg/hes to take part in the survey.
