A new case study from Understanding Society tells how researchers at the London School of Economics used Understanding Society in research to assess a government policy. Our data showed that what became known as the ‘bedroom tax’ saved less money than expected, and did not encourage people to downsize.
The under-occupancy penalty is a reduction in Housing Benefit introduced in 2013 for council or social housing tenants deemed to have a ‘spare’ room. Its aim was to reduce government expenditure on housing benefit, and to encourage people to move to smaller properties, freeing up social housing for those on the waiting list.
The evaluation compared households who were deemed to have a spare room according to the policy rules with comparable households who did not. The analysis used Understanding Society data on social housing tenants receiving housing benefit from 2009 to 2015 – i.e. before and after the policy came in.
Understanding Society data made it possible to tackle some of the challenges of evaluating social policy, such as:
- selection bias – Understanding Society covers such a range of topics, researchers can compare the two groups carefully to make sure they’re comparable
- counter-factual control – longitudinal data allows researchers to see whether changes in people’s lives were already happening before a policy was introduced
- response bias – where someone alters their answers to a survey question because they know or suspect how it might be used. Understanding Society participants couldn’t have known their data would be used to examine this policy.
The case study concludes that the policy did not succeed in encouraging people to move house – although those who moved anyway were more likely to downsize. It did reduce the costs to the taxpayer, but only made 70% of the savings that were anticipated – and at the expense of a group of people on a low income.
Download the case study: New policy evaluation: did the ‘bedroom tax’ work?
This research uses Understanding Society data from Waves 1-6
Family and householdsHousingIncome and expenditurePolitics and social attitudes
