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Scottish Household Survey Bulletin No.5

3. Households

Introduction

This section examines the characteristics of households in which the highest income householder (HIH) is female in comparison with those with a male HIH. It examines variations in household composition, income, household working status, tenure and MOSAIC area.

The highest income householder (HIH) is taken as the household reference person for the first part of the interview. This must be a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented or be otherwise responsible for the accommodation.

In households with joint householders, the person with the highest income is taken as the household reference person. If householders have exactly the same income, the older is taken as the household reference person.

Households

Table 1 shows how household type varies by the sex of the HIH. Households with a female HIH are more likely than those with a male HIH to be single pensioner households, single adult households or single parent households. In households containing more than one adult, the HIH is more likely to be male.

Twenty-five per cent of households with a female HIH have children compared with 30% of households with a male HIH (no table).

The economic activity status of the HIH is shown in Table 2. Most notably, a higher proportion of male HIHs are in full-time employment or self-employed, while a higher proportion of female HIHs are part-time employees, looking after the home or family, or permanently retired from work.

Table 3 shows the household working status by the sex of the HIH. Over half of households with a female HIH are non-working single adult households. Among households with an HIH of working age, 33% of those with a female HIH are non-working single adults. Only 11% of households with a female HIH of working age consist of working couples and 7% comprise a couple where only one partner works.

Associated with the economic status of households is household income. Table 4 shows net annual household income by the sex of the HIH. A much higher proportion of households with a female HIH are in the two lowest income bands compared with households with a male HIH. Conversely, households with a male HIH are more likely than those with a female HIH to be in the highest income band.

Households with a female HIH are more likely than those with a male HIH to have a higher proportion of their income made up of state benefits. Table 5 shows that 30% of households with a female HIH have a 'high' benefit dependency such that at least 90% of their income comes from state benefits, compared with 17% of households with a male HIH.

Economic status and income of households with a male and a female HIH are reflected in respondents' perceptions of how their household is managing financially, how often they worry about money, their possession of consumer durables and their access to financial services.

Table 6 shows that respondents in households with a female HIH of working age are more likely to worry about money either all the time or quite often than respondents in households with a male HIH of working age (39% and 31% respectively).

In the younger age bands, respondents in households with a female HIH are significantly more likely to worry about money almost all the time than those in households with a male HIH. For example, among those aged 25 years to 34 years, 18% of those in households with a female HIH worry about money almost all the time, compared with 10% of those with a male HIH. Among older households, however, there are no significant differences between households with a male HIH and households with a female HIH in relation to worrying about money. The same proportion of respondents (9%) in households with a male HIH aged between 60 years and 74 years worry about money almost all the time as in those with a female HIH aged in the same age band (no table).

Households with a male HIH are more likely be managing quite or very well financially compared with households with a female HIH (Table 7). Ten per cent of households with a female HIH report having some financial difficulties compared with 5% of households with a male HIH.

Households with a female HIH are less likely than those with a male HIH to have a bank account, savings and investments or home contents insurance (Table 8).

Households with a male HIH are much more likely to have access to a motor vehicle than households which have a female HIH (Table 9). Additionally, households with a female HIH are more likely to only have access to one vehicle, while households with a male HIH are more likely to have access to two or more vehicles (no table).

Possession of consumer durables does not vary significantly by the sex of the HIH except in relation to possession of home computers. Households with a female HIH are less likely to have a personal computer than households with a male HIH (23% and 38% respectively). Of those households who do have a home computer, households with a female HIH are less likely to have access to the internet from home than those with a male HIH (46% and 55% respectively) (Table 9).

Table 10 shows that the pattern of housing tenure varies for households by the sex of the HIH. Households with a male HIH are more likely to be buying their homes with a mortgage or loan, while households with a female HIH are more likely to be renting from a social landlord. The same proportion of households with a male and female HIH own their property outright (23%).

However, among single adult households of working age, this pattern reverses. A higher proportion of female single adult households live in owner occupied accommodation than do single adult male households (53% and 45% respectively). Conversely, a slightly higher proportion of male single adult households live in social rented accommodation than do female single adult households (40% and 35% respectively) (no table).

Households with a female HIH are less likely to be living in MOSAIC areas defined as 'high income' and 'middle income owner' (Table 11). As suggested from the tenure analysis shown in Table 10, a higher proportion of households with a female HIH live in MOSAIC areas defined as 'families in council flats' and 'renting singles' than do households with a male HIH.

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