What is “adding other information”?

Government departments and agencies hold information about people which they use for routine administrative purposes.  With your permission we would like to add information from these records to the information you have given us as part of the study. Adding this information to the survey data helps to build up an even fuller picture of participants’ lives. This makes BCS70 even more valuable as it means researchers can use it to answer even more questions about society.

As part of the Age 42 Survey in 2012, we asked you for your permission to add information from health records held by the NHS and economic records held by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to the information you have given us in our surveys over the years. If you lived with a partner at this time we also asked them for permission to add information from their records.

As part of the Life in Your Early 50s Survey, if you had not previously given your permission to add this information, we will ask your permission again. If you live with a partner who has not previously given permission, we will also ask their permission to add information from their records. If you (or your partner) are asked for your permission in this survey, the interviewer will either show you or provide you a copy of a leaflet which you can also find here.  Further information about permissions collected in this survey are detailed here.

You can also find out more by watching our video: