Tuesday 19 March 2024
To ensure the validity of essential data, the Data and Analysis team is urging more households to agree to take part in the Household Expenditure Survey (HES) if they receive an invitation letter. Households are also invited to proactively volunteer to complete the survey.
The results of the survey, which takes place every 5 years, will be used to update price inflation indices to ensure they remain accurate and representative of what people in Guernsey spend their money on. These indices impact on almost all islanders in some way or other, by informing how much certain payment values should be updated by each year, for example:
- Pension payments
- Social Security benefit rates
- Wage negotiations
- Rental price reviews
- Maintenance payments
To ensure the results are reliable and incorporate the seasonal changes in expenditure patterns, the aim is to survey more than 1,000 households over the course of a 12-month period ending in October 2024.
The survey is in two parts, a fieldworker assisted questionnaire and then a spending diary to complete over the next fortnight. It can be booked in at a time that is convenient and the data provided will be kept strictly confidential.
Helen Walton, Head of Data and Analysis said,
"It is really important that we get enough respondents to represent the population and we have some ground to make up before the October deadline.
A team of Fieldworkers is out and about knocking on doors and we continue to send invitations to take part to randomly selected addresses. A common emerging theme is that, in comparison to previous years, people seem to be available at home less. Therefore, we are now providing the option of completing the fieldworker assisted questionnaires over video call for those who would find this more convenient."
To thank people for contributing their time towards this research project, they can either be entered into one of four cash prize draws, each with three prizes: £150, £100 and £50. Alternatively, participants can collect a cash payment of £20 for the first adult plus a further £10 for each other person aged 16 or over and £5 for each person aged 15 or under in the household.
To volunteer, call 07781 419273 or follow this link https://gov.gg/volunteer4hes, and for more information, please visit https://gov.gg/hes.
