Household level NS-SEC
Traditionally, the unit of analysis or class composition has been the family/household rather than the individual. That is, the nuclear family is seen as the basic structural element because of the inter-dependence and shared conditions of family members. A family member's own position may have less relevance to his/her life chances than those of another family member. A practical solution to this problem has been to select one family or household member as a reference person and take that person's position to stand for the whole household.
Assigning an NS-SEC category to a household involves deciding which household member best defines that household's position. This person is termed the household reference person (HRP).
In the past the reference person was defined as the Head of Household - the eldest householder, with males taking precedence over females in the case of couples or non-related joint householders. Because of the overt sexism involved in this definition, the definition has recently been reviewed (Martin 1995, 1998; Martin and Barton 1996) and a change has been agreed. From 2001 a new definition of the Household Reference Person will be used: the person responsible for owning or renting or who is otherwise responsible for the accommodation. In the case of joint householders, the person with the highest income takes precedence and becomes the HRP. Where incomes are equal, the older is taken as the HRP. This procedure increases the likelihood both that a female will be the HRP and that the HRP better characterises the household's social position.
A note about allocating persons in the Armed Forces
The Armed Forces were not included within Social Class based on Occupation (SC) but were conventionally shown as a separate row in tables of Social Class. The Armed Forces were allocated to their own category in Socio-economic Groups (SEG). In the NS-SEC, armed forces personnel are allocated to operational categories L2 (Higher managerial occupations) for SOC2000 OUG 1171 (officers), L6 (Higher supervisory occupations) for supervisors in OUG 3311 (NCOs and other ranks), and L7.3 (Intermediate technical and auxiliary occupations) for employees in OUG 3311.
Depending on the focus of the research and any comparability issues with the previous SECs, users may chose to exclude armed forces personnel from their analyses. If the choice is to exclude, then it is recommended to perform selection commands at the OUG level rather than on NS-SEC categories as other occupations are included in those operational categories.
