Exploring Alternative Data Sources for Household Wealth Statistics

This paper aims to explore and assess alternative data sources for wealth in order to improve existing
pension wealth statistics. We find that, notwithstanding some limitations, the Wealth and Assets
Survey (WAS) is currently the most comprehensive source. Then, we conduct comparative analysis of
WAS against alternatives data sources, including potential new sources. Our findings suggest that,
despite WAS being somewhat good at capturing variations in pension wealth across the population, it
appears deficient in capturing well pensions uptake for the lower three deciles. Together, pension
wealth at the top end is also underreported. We recommend using alternative source of information,
such as a one-time survey and/or using a microsimulation approach to complement the available data.

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