Head of the household

[EhricLovesTheBhrothers]

Did you know that benefits forms ask the name of the head of the household? I wonder what they mean.

According to the Beeb the term was replaced on the census with "Household Reference Person, this is the person who earns the most in the household" I'm sure on MN we've discussed before that in the census most of the time whoever fills it in puts themselves down as 'household reference person' or at least 'person number 1' on the form.

(Note that census used to refer to HoH and 'the housewife' - Christ on a bike).

'Head of Household' feels like the wrong term regardless of who is the major earner in the house - in my house it's me, for example. That doesn't make me the 'head' of the household. However, it does make my income relevant to certain benefits DH can/can't claim, e.g. we're entitled to no held with adaptations to the property for his disability. If the term has to exist (and I don't see why you can't just put 'major wage earner' since that's what we're apparently talking about) I would apply it to the person who does most of the day-to-day running of the family. I think it would be a rare family that didn't have one 'lead' organiser.

It's such an antiquated term. Main wage earner is a simple concept. I can't believe the dwp still uses such an outdated term.

Why would the Household Reference Person be the one that earns the most money?

Our family doesn't have one lead organiser!

How about eldest? Or first alphabetically?

I have had this issue with a government survey on pensions, where they insisted the household income was my income. As I was not working at the time, I had no income. I then had a list of boxes to fill in where I had to explain why I had no pension. None of the options were 'because my income is zero.' They will then collate that into statistics saying x percent of people on x income have no pension. The public will then assume it is people frittering away money, because it is highly misleading to say a woman on no or a low wage has her partner's income. I wonder how many other surveys mislead in that way.

Or, most likely, "person who drew the short straw for THIS particular form"