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Council Tax

Volume 408: debated on Thursday 10 July 2003

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To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 10 June 2003, Official Report, columns 746–47W, on council tax, what the council tax was as a percentage of gross income for (a) female-headed households and (b) male-headed households in each income decile in England in the financial year 2001–02. [124370]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Matthew Taylor, dated 10 July 2003:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking for a break down of council tax as a percentage of gross income in England in 2001–02 by (a) female-headed households and (b) male-headed households consistent with estimates given in my previous answer of 10th June for households in Great Britain. (124370)
Estimates for council taxes and income are based on the analysis "The effects of taxes and benefits on household income 2001–02" produced by the Office for National Statistics and published on the National Statistics website on April 11th 2003, and in Economic Trends in the May 2003 edition. The analysis can be obtained from the House of Commons library. This includes measures of income inequality for the United Kingdom as a whole based on data from the Expenditure and Food Survey. Sample sizes are only sufficient to allow a breakdown to be given by quintiles of income distribution and not by decile.
The Household Reference Person is identified during the interview and is defined as the member of the household who:
a. owns the household accommodation, or
b. is legally responsible for the rent of the accommodation, or
c. has the household accommodation as an emolument or perquisite, or
d. has the household accommodation by virtue of some relationship to the owner who is not a member of the household.

Council tax as a percentage of gross

income for female-headed and male-headed1 households,

2001–02

Percentage

England

Quintile groups of all households ranked

by equivalised disposable income

Households

Bottom

2nd

3rd

4th

Top

All households

Quintile points2 disposable income, £ per

year)

Female-headed9,57312,76617,45125,709
Male-headed11,46616,58322,41230,545

Gross council tax

Female-headed7.85.33.82.71.42.8
Male-headed6.53.72.72.11.32.3

Net council tax3

Female-headed4.53.13.02.51.42.2
Male-headed4.73.22.62.11.32.1

1 Households where the household reference

person is female or male.

2 Equivalised disposable income at the boundary

point between two quintile groups.

3 Net council taxes after deducting benefits and

discounts.

Source:

Office for National Statistics, based on the analysis "The effects of taxes and benefits on household income", published on the ONS website and in Economic Trends No. 594 May 2003