Understanding Society ask participants about various aspects of their household and individual finances. The complement this information, linked data is available on specific financial areas.
Linked financial data available for research
Auto-enrolment pension (NEST) dataset, 2014-2022: Secure Access
The Nest linked dataset provides data from the Nest pensions accounts of 1672 Understanding Society respondents who have consented to have these data linked and made available for research. Nest (the National Employment Savings Trust) is a large workplace pension provider set up by the UK government to accept enrolments from workers who are eligible for enrolment into a workplace pension, under the UK’s national programme of pensions auto-enrolment. The linked data are available via the UK Data Service under their Secure Access category. Researchers are required to attend a Safe Researcher training course to access the dataset.
Linked Credit Reference Agency (CRA) dataset, 2009-2021: Secure Access
The CRA linked dataset contains, for study participants who provided consent, a file containing credit histories collected by a Credit Reference Agency (CRA) before being linked to their study records by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The main topic covered in the data files is information on credit items and their histories, including: current accounts; mortgages; running cards (credit cards and store cards); personal loans; motor finance; retail finance; ‘other running’ (card accounts such as mail order and charge cards); home collected high cost credit (rent to own, logbook loans, home credit, guarantor’s loans); household bill accounts (credit accounts pertaining to household expenses such as electricity, gas, water); telecommunications company credit accounts. The linked data are available via the UK Data Service under their Secure Access category. Researchers are required to attend a Safe Researcher training course to access the dataset.