FOI REF: FOI/2023/4788
You asked
Would it be possible to request information on disposable income by postcode, and not just by the LAU1 codes?
Would it be possible to request this information for periods after 2016, say 2016 to 2022/2022?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
In order to provide the requested information at postcode level, we would be required to create new information requiring a high level of statistical skill and judgement to produce. Public authorities are not obliged to create new information to answer FOI requests. Therefore, this information is not held for FOI purposes. Please also be advised that even if we were to create the requested information at postcode level, our sample sizes would mean that the data produced would not be statistically robust and would also pose a high risk of identifying individuals.
However, you may find the following information useful.
We produce two 'national statistics' badged estimates of disposable income for small areas:
Income estimates for small areas, England and Wales provides a range of estimates of mean total and net income for Middle layer Super Output Areas, or local areas, in England and Wales. The modelling methodology enables survey data from DWP's Family Resources Survey (FRS) to be combined with census and administrative data to improve the quality of estimates at the small area level. Most recent estimates are available for 2018, with an update planned later this year.
Regional Gross Disposable Household Income provides annual estimates for the UK International Territorial Levels, local and combined authorities, and other economic and enterprise regions. A "top-down" approach is used for the production of regional GDHI estimates, whereby the national aggregate, consistent with the UK National Accounts, The Blue Book, is allocated to regions using a regional indicator dataset. Most recent estimates are available for 2020. We are currently in the experimental stages of producing work similar to that which has been requested, involving the development of the method that we will use to disaggregate local authority-level gross disposable household income to Lower Layer Super Output Area level.
In case it is of interest, more information about the Census 2021 geographies can be found here Census 2021 geographies - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) and further information about our income statistics are available in the Income and Earnings Statistics Guide.