The effects of taxes and benefits on household income, 2008/09

Abstract

This article looks at how taxes and benefits affect the income of households in the UK. It provides estimates of household incomes, including the average amount of taxes that households paid, and also the value of benefits that they received in 2008/09, a period when the UK economy was in recession. The analysis highlights that the level of inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, fell slightly between 2007/08 and 2008/09 for retired households, but for non-retired households it was almost unchanged. This analysis is published annually and has been undertaken each year for over 30 years.Appendix 1 (additional tables) and Appendix 2 (Methodology and Definitions) are available on the web version of this article at: www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/article.asp? ID=2440Additional ONS analysis of the effect of the recession on households' incomes will be published in August 2010, as part of a wider investigation of the recession.