Benefits unit finances module

The first experiment presented respondents with an income summary screen, which displayed the person’s derived monthly net income based on their responses to previous answers in the survey.

The second experiment was part of the Benefit Unit Finances module. This was a separate module that used derived information from the adult interviews about benefit unit net income (using net income and benefit receipt variables). In addition the module collected information about benefit unit expenditure in the last month, and changes in assets and debts. At the end of the module respondents where show a reconciliation of whether their income minus spending matched their changes in assets and debts in the last months. This included an experiment with how respondents were asked about changes in their assets and debts. Two versions were used: the first version framed questions in terms of gross flows of money, the second asks about net flows of money.

The two experiments were crossed. Controlling variables are in the file i_hhsamp_ip:

ff_incomesummary

1          Income summary screen not used

2          Income summary screen used

ff_bufmodule

1          Version A: gross flows

2          Version B: net flows

The variables used for this experiment are in record i_indresp:

finsum, finsumchk, paynmnth_b, j2paymnth_b, jsmnth_b, frmnthtot_b, indinctot_b, further variables are in record i_bufind, i_bufinance, and i_benefitsum: rec1draw, rec1save, rec1buexp, rec1totin, rec1totout, rec1balance, rec1bal, buinctot_r1, rec1draw_r1, rec1buexp_r1, rec1save_r1, rec1totin_r1, rec1totout_r1, rec1balance_r1, rec2buexp, rec2savint, rec2bal1, rec2balamt1, csavings1, rec2bal2, rec2balamt2, csavings2, rec2bal3, rec2balamt3, csavings3, rec2bal4, rec2balamt4, csavings4, rec2detint, rec2detbal1, rec2detamt1, cdebts1, rec2detbal2, rec2detamt2, cdebts2, rec2detbal3, rec2detamt3, cdebts3, rec2detbal4, rec2detamt4, cdebts4, csavings, cdebts, rec2incbal, rec2acbal, rec2balance, rec2bal, buinctot_r2, rec2buexp_r2, csavings_r2, cdebts_r2, rec2incbal_r2, rec2acbal_r2, rec2balance_r2.