Background to the Research

• The FRS is sample survey of households across the UK and for the period April 2002 to March 2003 NI has been included in the sample for the first time.
• This report presents a summary of the findings from the NI section of the FRS and comparisons with the results from the UK as a whole.

Research Approach

• The Valuation and Lands Agency's list of private addresses is stratified into three regions - Belfast (Belfast District Council only), East of Northern Ireland and West of Northern Ireland. The number of addresses drawn from each region is in proportion to the number of addresses in the region.
• "Rotated" sections of the questionnaire are asked every other year.
• The FRS aims to interview all adults in a household.
• The sample consisted of 3,207 households. In total, 1,750 households fully co-operated, 37 partially co-operated, and 1,031 refused. The interviewer was unable to make contact with 336 households.
• For full details of the methodology and tables of results please go to: http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/publications/displayitemSections.asp?ID=427.
  

Main Findings

Household Characteristics

• The average number of persons per household is 2.6 in NI compared to 2.3 in the UK.
• NI has a lower percentage of single-person households (22%) compared to the UK (32%). It also has the highest percentage of households with children (37%), with the next highest region being London (30%) and the UK average is 28%.
• There are also more households with sick or disabled adults under pension age in NI (25%) compared to the UK average (23%).
• NI has however a lower percentage of households with one or more adults over pension age (28%), compared to the UK average (30%). There are also fewer households in NI with unemployed adults under pension age (3%), compared to the UK average (5%).

Income and State Support Receipt

• 60% of household income in NI is sourced from Wages and Salaries, compared to 65% in the UK as a whole. NI households however source a higher percentage of their income from self-employment (12%) compared to the UK average (9%).
• On average only 1% of NI household income comes from Investments, compared to other UK regions which average between 2%-3%.
• 86% of households reporting receipt of less than £100 per week are those without children.
• The main source of income of benefit units where the head or spouse is sick or disabled (55%) is from Social Security benefits.
• Benefit receipt is higher in NI (63% of benefit units) than the UK average (58%).
• The UK average for taking out private medical insurance is 17% compared to the NI average of 10%.

Tenure and Housing Costs

• NI is similar to the UK with 10% of households privately rented and 19% and 21% rented from the social sector respectively. 75% of households where there is a single adult with children are renting.
• Households where there is one or more sick or disabled adult are less likely to own their own home.
• The over 55’s have less housing costs than the under 55’s.
• Households with children have higher housing costs than households without children.
• Households with one or more sick or disabled adults under pension age have higher housing costs than households with one or more adults over pension age.

Assets and Savings

• 17% of households in NI have no savings or bank account, compared to a UK average of 8%.
• Only 57% of single parent households have some sort of savings account.
• 85% of Pensioner couples have some type of savings account compared to 68% of Single Female Pensioners.
• Men are equally likely to have some type of savings account at any age whereas older women are less likely to have some type of account.
• 81% of single-parent households have no savings, compared to the 43% of all households.
• 81% of Benefit Units with the head or spouse sick or disabled have no savings.
• 67% of households whose weekly income is between £100 and £200 have no savings whilst 21% of households with weekly income over £1000 have savings of £20,000 or more.

Carers

• 41% of informal carers provide 10 or more hours of care per week.
• 25% of informal carers are caring for a partner or spouse. 42% of informal carers providing care for relatives are non-household members.
• 52% of adult informal carers are also in full time or part time employment.
• 76% of those receiving care are attended to at least once a day, with 37% receiving care continuously.
• 45% of those receiving care stated Retirement pension (state and other) as their main source of income; 21% from employment; 18% disability benefits; 15% other benefits; and 3% other.

Occupation and Employment

• 47% of male employees are working full-time compared to 30% of female employees.
• 9% of adults are permanently sick or disabled compared to 6% in the UK as a whole.
• 19% of males are working 51 hours or more compared to 5% of memales.
• Self-employed males are more likely to have no pension scheme (53%) compared to employed males (43%).
• 5% of working adults work from home with the largest category being skilled trades occupation.
• 20% of working adults work between 2 and under 5 miles from their home.
• The majority (79%) of working adults travel by car/van to work and 10% walk to work.
• 40% of Protestants are working full-time employees compared to 33% of Catholics.
• 3% of Protestants are ILO unemployed compared to 2% of Catholics.
• 11% of Protestants are Managers & Senior Officials compared to 9% of Catholics, whilst 30% of male Catholics work in Skilled Trade Occupations compared to 25% of Protestants.