You asked
Browsing your website we have come across the summary statistics of the data we are looking for, but we could not find the underlying panel datasets, containing information on demographics and telecommunications (mobile and fixed) expenditures and usage. Ideally, we would need to have access to the data at the individual level, and not aggregated by categories or countries. Data on the UK would be sufficient. Would it be possible to receive the survey questionnaires, if these were conducted, and dataset at the respondent level? A recent panel covering a sufficient time span, with demographics and telecommunications spending and usage characteristics would be perfect.
We said
The Living Costs and Food survey publish the Family Spending data annually on the ONS website, showing a summary of expenditure patterns and a large variety of data tables. No underlying datasets are released.
However, the UK Data Service (UKDS), based at the University of Essex, provides controlled access to a wide range of social and economic research data, including a number anonymised ONS datasets and the relevant questionnaires.
The Approved Researcher (AR) scheme is used to govern access to ONS data managed by the UKDS, including those available under the terms of a Special Licence. If you are able to do your own analyses you could access anonymised LCF datasets from the UKDS. Details of the data available, any relevant charges and the application process are available on the UKDS website.
The latest LCF data is attached:
SN 7992 - Living Costs and Food Survey, 2014 https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/?sn=7992&type=Data%20catalogue