Who’s Falling Behind? New Dashboard Uncovers the Real Impact of Income Volatility
At Smart Data Foundry, we believe data should work for people, not just institutions. In a groundbreaking partnership with Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) Insight Infrastructure programme, we want to shed light on the growing financial pressures millions of Britons face.
The Income Volatility Dashboard, powered by anonymised data from more than 1.2 million NatWest Group account holders, is updated weekly, giving an almost real-time snapshot of household finances. This pioneering dashboard aims to provide crucial insights for researchers, charities, and policymakers who are battling to understand, and hopefully alleviate, the financial struggles faced by ordinary families across the country.
Rather than relying on outdated reports or estimations, this dashboard tracks how financial pressures like rising bills, unpredictable wages, and debt affect people in real life and beyond one-off events like COVID-19, to identify recurring patterns that affect household incomes. It highlights the growing gap between those who bounce back from financial shocks and those who struggle to recover, helping us understand why some households are being left behind.
The data collected will soon be combined with JRF’s research. By combining financial data with personal experiences from communities facing hardship, we can create a fuller picture of economic insecurity and work towards meaningful change.
Why This Matters
Rosario Piazza, Chief Insight Architect at JRF, said: “This close to real-time data on income volatility can allow researchers and policymakers to gain a better understanding of what life is actually like for earners and consumers across the UK. Many people, for Instance, do not receive regular monthly wages they rely on the gig economy or are self-employed. However, a good proportion of policies, financial services and products are based on the assumption that all workers rely on steady earnings, whereas the reality is that both income and expenditures are subject to frequent fluctuations.
“Policy decisions are often based on data that is out of date or does not capture fast-changing dynamics of people and communities. The Income Volatility dashboard and the safe research environment within MyFoundry aim to change how decisions are made. SDF offers access to data sets that look at a smaller number of people or can look at people from all different walks of life not just those in poverty. You can find people on large salaries who have huge overheads and big debts who are financially really struggling and explore what types of policies could be put in place to address these issues.
Access to better data means that we have the opportunity to fairly represent human behaviour and base policies on facts, not preconceptions. In the long term, we hope this will translate Into lasting positive social change.
The anonymous data can be accessed via a free public dashboard, which allows anyone to view summaries and aggregations of near real-time banking data by geography, demographics, and financial activities. There is also a researchers’ data haven, where researchers and academics can access raw data by submitting and getting approval for research proposals focused on income volatility and related issues.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation has a number of free licenses to the researcher’s data haven to enable charities and policymakers to access this data and do their own analysis around income volatility.
A Call to Action for the Financial Sector
For Smart Data Foundry, this project is a step towards a bigger vision: unlocking financial data for social good. Magdalena Getler, Head of Academic Engagement, hopes this initiative will inspire more banks to share their data in ways that benefit society.
We believe financial data can be a powerful force for change,” she says. “When combined with other information, like health data, it can show us how poverty impacts every aspect of life, helping us drive better solutions.
Join the Conversation
To explore how this data can shape policy and financial support, Smart Data Foundry and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation are hosting a free webinar (registrations will open 20th February).
Shaping Policy with Income Volatility Data
Wednesday, 12th March 2025
The event will feature expert speakers discussing critical economic and social issues, including wealth inequality, macroeconomic policy, and fuel poverty research.
Simon Pittaway (Resolution Foundation) is a Senior Economist specialising in wealth inequality, household balance sheets, and macroeconomic policy. He joined the Resolution Foundation in February 2023, following a career at the Bank of England, where he held various roles covering macroprudential policy, household and corporate debt, and financial markets. Simon holds a BA and an MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge.
Torran Semple (University of Nottingham) is a PhD researcher whose work focuses on the spatial dynamics of fuel poverty, the relationships between different types of poverty, optimal methods for measuring poverty, and the challenges of decarbonising housing without exacerbating social inequalities. He earned an MEng in Civil Engineering from Edinburgh Napier University in 2021, where he specialised in using statistical models and machine learning techniques to analyse behavioural and perceptual datasets.
This discussion will provide valuable insights into the intersection of economic policy, social inequality, and sustainable housing, drawing on cutting-edge research and expert analysis.
