4.2 INTRODUCTION OF ADDITIONAL DATA ITEMS
ADDITIONAL DATA ITEMS
The 2003-04 survey introduced a number of data items that had not been collected in previous surveys. Some of these had previously been collected in either SIH or HES, and others were new to both surveys. The major additions are outlined below.
Items new to both SIH and HES
Wealth
Previous surveys collected information on the estimated value of owner occupied dwellings and some information on household loans. The 2003-04 SIH and HES collected, for the first time, a comprehensive range of information about the assets and liabilities of each household, enabling the estimation of each household's wealth or net worth. The items collected are outlined in section 1.9 'Wealth or net worth'. As well as providing valuable information about the economic resources of each household, the collection of the wealth information may have improved the reporting of the associated income streams. These items will be collected in the 2005-06 SIH and then again in the 2009-10 SIH/HES.
Salary sacrifice and salary packaging
The 2003-04 SIH and HES also collected information relating to salary sacrifice and other forms of salary packaging. The items collected can be found in the data item list in Appendix 4. None of the information has been included in income aggregates or used to adjust reported information on cash income, but the items are available for customised data requests and to researchers using the confidentialised unit record files from the survey. It should be noted that survey respondents reported that about two thirds of salary sacrificed income had actually been included in their reported 'cash' income from wages and salaries (and therefore included in aggregate income estimates).
Alternative income measures
The integration of the SIH and the HES has necessitated a number of changes to the content of income items. In addition, some improvements have been made in the estimation of current income from investments and unincorporated business (see section 4.5 'Changes in survey methodology'). Where possible, supplementary data items have been included which replicate the content of the items that have been included on previous HES and SIH files. The SIH files include two income aggregates, "Total current weekly income from all sources" and "Total current weekly income from all sources (prev SIH basis)". The only difference between these two aggregates is the estimation method used for current income from investments and unincorporated business (described further in section 4.5 'Changes in survey methodology'). The HES files also include a third aggregate "Total current weekly income from all sources (prev HES basis)". This aggregate differs from the 'prev SIH basis' estimate in that it includes employee income from regular bonuses, some miscellaneous income in kind reported in HES diaries, and income of children under 15.
Housing utilisation
A new data item has been introduced which uses the Canadian National Occupancy Standard to determine the number of bedrooms required by a household based on the age, sex and family relationships of the household members and compares it with the number of bedrooms in the dwelling the household is occupying. For more information on the Canadian National Occupancy Standard, see Section 1.12 'Housing Statistics'.
Additional housing cost items
The definition of housing costs used in the 2003-04 issue of Housing Occupancy and Costs, Australia (cat. no. 4130.0.55.001) has remained consistent with that used previously, ie for renters it consists of rent payments, and for owners it consists of rate payments and any mortgage or unsecured loan payments if the initial purpose was primarily to buy, build, add to or alter the dwelling. However, some additional items relating to housing costs were collected to enable alternative estimates of housing costs to be constructed. These include:
- information on body corporate payments,
- more detail on loan repayments enabling the split of repayments into principal and interest components,
- information on water consumption charges for all tenure types,
- where a payment has been refunded by a business or someone outside the household, the amount of the refund was collected, and
- where loans were used for multiple purposes, details of all purposes were collected, so repayments can be allocated to each purpose in accordance with the percentage split of the original loan amount by purpose.
Payments to non household members
The financial resources available to certain persons can be affected by regular payments that they may make to provide support for persons outside the household. In previous SIH cycles, details of payments for child support were collected. In 2003-04, additional data on payments of alimony to former spouse and payments to family members not in the household were also collected.
Interest paid on money borrowed to purchase shares
As noted in Section 1.4 Components of income, income from rent is collected net of the expenses incurred in deriving that income, but income from other investments is collected on a gross basis. In 2003-04, the amount of interest paid on money borrowed to purchase shares was collected and may be used to adjust dividend income from shares.
Module imputation flags
Imputation flags have been derived for each module in the questionnaire and indicate for each record whether there were any questions imputed. Referring to the contents of the questionnaire module can provide an indication of the extent to which particular data items may have included imputed data. For more information on imputation, see section 2.4 'Data processing'.
Items new to HES
Previous financial year income
Previous Household Expenditure Surveys collected detailed income information on a current basis only. However, the SIH has always collected detailed information on both a current and a previous financial year basis by source. The integration of the two surveys means that this information is now also collected in the HES.
Government pensions and allowances
The integration of the HES and SIH resulted in some extra components of income from government pensions and allowances being collected explicitly. For example, wife pension and carer payment were collected separately (previously these had been combined in the HES), and income from Department of Veterans' Affairs service pension, disability pension and war widow(er)'s pension were collected separately (previously these had been combined as income from Department of Veterans' Affairs pensions in the HES).
Remoteness
A new geographic variable which categorises locations according to their remoteness has been introduced (this item was introduced in SIH output from 2002-03). Locations are categorised as least remote, remote and very remote based on their Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) score. For more information on Remoteness and ARIA see Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) (cat. no. 1216.0).
Items new to SIH
Income from investments
In previous SIHs, only the total amount of interest earned from financial institutions, debentures and bonds, trusts and loans to persons outside the household was collected. In 2003-04, information on interest earned was collected separately for each of the four investment types.
Income from other sources
In 2003-04, income from scholarships was collected (previously it was part of "other income"). In addition, income from workers' compensation and accident compensation was collected separately instead of collecting the combined income from these two sources.
Education
Data on the highest year of school completed was not collected in previous SIHs, but has been included in the 2003-04 SIH.
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