Description:
The cost of living indicator measures the percentage of net income spent on housing, fuel and food by households in Scotland and is measured as a three-year rolling average.
Source of Data:
This data is sourced from the Living Costs and Foods Survey. This is an annual survey carried out by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). It collects information on spending patterns and is conducted throughout the year, across the whole of the UK.
Definitions:
The following information contributes to the cost of living indicator:
Housing: Gross rent, mortgage interest payments, water charges, structural insurance, and other regular housing payments including service charge for rent.
Fuel: Electricity, gas and other fuels (coal and coke, oil for central heating, paraffin, wood, peat etc).
Food: Food and non-alcoholic drinks purchased for consumption at home.
Net income: Gross household income less: statutory deductions for income tax and National Insurance contributions; council tax payments, pension/superannuation contributions and maintenance allowance payments.
Criteria for Change:
- Performance is improving if there is a decrease of at least 1 percentage point between the most recent two consecutive three-year rolling averages.
- Performance is worsening if there is an increase of at least 1 percentage point between the most recent two consecutive three-year rolling averages.
- Otherwise, performance is maintaining.
A guide for the general methodology of indicators can be found here: https://www2.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms/NPFChanges/Methodology
Future issues or reviews:
The pandemic created difficulties in the field for the Living Costs and Foods Survey (LCFS). To avoid human interaction, face to face data collection was replaced by telephone interviews for 2020-21 and 2021-22. The approach was also amended for capturing detail via respondent self-completed diaries. Respondents were asked to provide copies of receipts while interviewers recorded non-receipt-based expenditure via additional telephone calls during the two-week period the diary covered.
As with many other household surveys response rates fell as a result of the pandemic. For the LCFS the response rates declined from 40% in 2019-20 (pre-pandemic) to 24% and 27% in 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively. The issued sample size was increased in order to compensate, resulting in a similar achieved sample size for that period.
For more details see the technical report on the ONS webpages.