taking the receipt persistence perspective implies that every member of a family should be represented in the data set the distinction between recipient and claimant is complicated by the fact that a person may become a claimant or stop being a claimant separately from whether or not the person s family is in receipt for example consider a lone mother who is a benefit claimant and in receipt in year t at tl she repartners with a man and it is he who is now the benefit claimant and family head