4.4 CHANGES IN CONCEPTS, DEFINITIONS AND CLASSIFICATIONS IN 2003–04
CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
In previous SIHs, the household reference person was chosen from an income unit within the household that had the highest tenure type. Tenure type has been collected for households but not for income units in the 2003-04 SIH. The tenure type of income units is therefore no longer used in determining which person in the household is to be designated as household reference person. This is consistent with the definition used in previous cycles of the HES.
In previous HESs, gross income included a number of additional components. These were income from regular bonuses, income of children under 15 and income in-kind relating to incidental items such as food and motor vehicle fuel reported in the diaries. As a result of the integration of HES and SIH, these items are no longer in included in aggregate income estimates, but are available separately.
CLASSIFICATIONS
Minor changes were made to the Household Expenditure Classification (HEC) to update the classification and to provide additional detail for a few items. The new categories relate to set top boxes and T-shirts and extra detail is provided on toiletries and some sporting equipment. Record players, tape decks and kitchen furniture no longer have separate categories.
In the published output from the surveys, the data item "family composition of household" replaces the item "household composition". The new item better meets user requirements for the treatment of households with dependent children.
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