RAPID: Population interactions with employment, benefits and pensions - UK

RAPID: Population interactions with employment, benefits and pensions – UK is a population-based dataset created from administrative records held by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The dataset includes de-identified records for all people with a National Insurance number, including children, who were alive on or after 6 April 2010. The data covers the United Kingdom and is based on 100% extracts from DWP and HMRC administrative systems.

RAPID captures an annual summary of employment, benefit and pension activities, and the income associated with those activities, between 2010/11 and 2023/24. The data is analysis-ready, and is held in flat file format with one row per person per tax year and columns for each of the activity variables.

The dataset enables analysis of month-on-month activities and the transitions between employment and benefits. It includes income measures based on the activities within RAPID and provides the ability to analyse populations to low levels of geography by age, sex and derived economic activity in each month.

Component datasets and linkage

The dataset contains the following:

Timeframe	2010/11 to 2023/24
Update Frequency	Annual
Population	All people with a National Insurance Number (including children)
Coverage	United Kingdom (and some abroad activities)
Size	Between 79 million and 87 million person-records per tax year.

The table below gives an overview of the types of information available in RAPID, and the information that is not included:

Population	Demographics	Activities	Income	Disability and care
Covered:	Covered:	Covered:	Covered:	Covered:
UK coverage Geography (LSOA) Children Adults Some household links 2010/11 onwards Resident / Not resident measure	Birth Age Sex Death date Alive post 05/04/2008 Nationality at National Insurance Number registration	Benefits by type Employment summary Self-employment Occupational and personal pensions Benefit relationships and households	Benefit income Employment income Self-employment profit Pensions in payment (state pension and private)	Disability condition Component combinations Care relationship Mobility / daily living elements Universal Credit health journey
Not covered:	Not covered:	Not covered:	Not covered:	Not covered:
All household links Special populations (prisoners, foreign forces etc.)	Ethnicity Current nationality Marital / relationship status Gender	Individual employment detail Hours worked Education activity and qualifications	Investment income Savings Maintenance payments Winter fuel Outgoing, debt and housing costs	Medical condition for Scottish benefits Disabled but not on benefit

Examples of research questions

Examples of questions which could be investigated using RAPID include:

How do changes in local employment rates since the Covid-19 pandemic relate to patterns of change before the pandemic?
To what extent are geographic moves associated with increases in earnings? Which areas have the highest rates of movers in and out?
What are the different patterns of earnings progression observed? What other factors are associated with these?
How have employment rates of lone parents changed over time, and how does this vary between areas?
What is the relationship between individuals’ employment and earnings after reaching the age of 50 and their labour market history prior to that?
What are the drivers of economic inactivity? What is the role of geography?

Research priorities

ADR UK encourages the use of flagship datasets for policy-relevant research, to increase the chance of these research insights informing better decisions in policy and practice.

RAPID is relevant to the following stated goals from DWP:

Enable people to get into work and to get on at work, ensuring employment opportunity for all.
Tackle child poverty and hardship, ensuring financial security for all.
Shape the pensions system to serve the interests of savers and pensioners, ensuring decent, secure retirement incomes for all.
Pursue a just, equal and inclusive society, ensuring independence and control for all disabled people.

Detailed research questions relating to DWP goals are set out in DWP’s areas of research interest, which are currently under revision.

DWP has also recently taken over responsibility for skills policy, which is not yet reflected in these goals. Questions relating to skills are set out in the Department for Education’s areas of research interest.

Additionally, research questions from all published areas of research interest (ARI) documents are brought together in the ARI Database.

Potential areas to explore may also be suggested by the Get Britain Working White Paper and Kickstarting Economic Growth.

Core documentation

User Guide

Access the documentation for RAPID.

Data Dictionary

Access the documentation for RAPID.

Accessing the data

More information about how to apply to access RAPID will be available on this page soon.

You must apply to become an accredited researcher under the Digital Economy Act 2017. Find out more.

For questions about the data, please contact adrcuration@ons.gov.uk.

For questions about data access and the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service, please contact srs.customer.support@ons.gov.uk.

ADR UK Research Fellowships

ADR UK is funding policy-relevant research using ADR England flagship datasets. Research Fellows will address priority research questions, generate insights and demonstrate the value of ADR England data. These datasets are held securely in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service or other trusted research environments.

Learn more

If you have specific query about the RAPID flagship dataset, you can use this form to submit questions to the data owners. We will try to answer these questions during an upcoming webinar for the fellowships funding opportunity, which will focus on RAPID: