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Taxation: Income

Volume 491: debated on Monday 27 April 2009

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with reference to the answer of 11 June 2008, Official Report, columns 308-9W, on taxation: income, if he will publish an updated copy of table 14A of the Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income, broken down by the age of the household’s reference person in five year bands from the ages of 20 to 80 years rather than by household income deciles, for the latest year for which figures are available. (270208)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated April 2009:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking with reference to the Answer of 11 June 2008, Official Report, columns 308-9W, on taxation: income, if he will place in the Library an updated copy of table 14A of the Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income, broken down by the age of the households reference person in five year bands from the ages of 20 to 80 years rather than by household income deciles, for the latest year for which figures are available. (270208)

The table requested is provided here for the year 2006/07, the latest period for which figures are available. This table will also be provided to the House of Commons Library.

Average incomes, taxes and benefits have been presented with households grouped in five year bands according to age of the household reference person (HRP). To ensure that all households are classified, an age group for households where the HRP is aged 80 or over has been included. Households where the HRP is under 20 (of which there are relatively few) are classified in the same group as those where the HRP is aged 20 to 24.

The information in this response is based on the Expenditure and Food Survey, which has a sample size of approximately 6,400 households. When breaking down this sample into age bands the sub-samples become quite small. The estimates for all of the age groups are based on sub-samples of around 370-710 households. With such small sample sizes, caution should be exercised when drawing any conclusions from these estimates. As an indication of sampling variability, the 95 per cent confidence interval for average gross household income for all households is approximately ±2.8 per cent. When disaggregating the information to smaller sub-groups, such as household age groups, the sampling variability will be greater due to a smaller sample size.

Average household incomes, taxes and benefits by age of household reference person, 2006-07

Household reference person age groups

<25

25-29

30-34

35-39

40-44

45-49

50-54

55-59

60-64

65-69

70-74

75-79

>79

All house-holds

Average per household (£ per year)

sample number in each band

181

403

477

625

708

647

549

574

543

446

468

366

401

6,388

Number of households in the population (thousand)

872

1,620

1,903

2,502

2,788

2,474

2,177

2,232

1,975

1,547

1,652

1,262

1,832

24,836

Original income

Wages and salaries

17,713

28,822

33,988

34,435

31,895

36,387

34,005

27,071

17,298

3,794

1,670

1,083

372

23,000

Imputed income from benefits in kind

165

246

540

458

561

440

549

435

204

55

8

9

17

325

Self-employment income

840

2,611

3,907

4,300

3,880

5,329

4,447

3,632

3,403

1,405

475

130

334

3,036

Occupational pensions, annuities

5

77

145

171

453

1,038

2,599

6,219

7,337

6,948

5,571

4,405

2,431

Investment income

134

161

420

813

958

616

1,178

1,581

1,784

1,636

2181

1,495

1,083

1,088

Other income

619

481

148

297

432

181

75

90

56

37

59

78

120

199

Total

19,470

32,327

39,080

40,448

37,897

43,406

41,292

35,409

28,964

14,263

11,342

8,366

6,331

30,080

Direct benefits in cash

Contributory

Retirement pension

24

67

79

104

159

113

241

2,659

7,291

7,379

7,126

6,165

2,047

Jobseeker’s allowance (Contribution based)

12

12

29

10

21

35

34

9

5

21

5

16

Incapacity benefit

21

80

131

165

231

233

480

478

472

107

85

54

61

224

Widows’ benefits

21

18

20

28

40

47

10

16

18

Statutory Maternity Pay/Allowance

64

110

254

80

84

23

23

27

53

Non-contributory

Income support and pension credit

464

432

376

385

339

404

410

276

576

332

298

396

573

400

Child benefit

302

492

694

933

905

603

338

106

40

18

7

3

4

396

Housing benefit

688

672

432

510

323

353

467

366

417

440

442

423

530

448

Jobseeker’s allowance (Income based)

85

46

46

58

38

47

63

48

8

12

35

38

Invalid care allowance

17

41

28

49

79

25

61

34

91

16

32

41

42

Attendance allowance

2

5

29

28

30

61

226

262

42

Disability living allowance

42

42

182

121

204

342

326

380

503

531

351

254

112

268

War pensions/War widows' pensions

3

11

9

34

55

6

9

47

48

134

27

Severe disablement allowance

1

33

29

20

33

48

57

53

26

40

68

55

36

Industrial injury disablement benefit

2

15

19

17

28

29

25

22

10

26

15

Student support

379

211

61

72

72

93

73

56

11

5

69

Government training schemes

4

4

6

8

14

15

7

0

0

0

5

Tax credits1

586

695

627

735

559

373

192

44

15

22

311

Other non-contributory benefits2

48

34

32

24

28

31

146

32

178

230

249

253

487

125

Total cash benefits

2,694

2,868

3,004

3,286

3,012

2,872

2,845

2,371

5,041

9,158

9,011

8,940

8,488

4,580

Gross income

22,164

35,194

42,084

43,734

40,909

46,278

44,137

37,780

34,005

23,421

20,353

17,305

14,819

34,661

Direct taxes and Employees’ NIC

Income tax

2,423

4,920

6,551

6,976

6,365

7,382

6,680

5,573

4,942

2,553

1,970

1,110

908

4,954

Less: Tax credits3

111

297

270

324

318

197

112

46

13

4

3

4

9

148

Employees’ NI contributions

1,222

2,075

2,350

2,215

2,124

2,225

2,332

1,843

1,109

251

102

79

25

1,528

Council tax and Northern Ireland rates4

783

893

1,034

1,081

1,129

1,138

1,144

1,171

1,193

1,148

1,132

1,097

1,035

1,093

Less: Council tax benefit/Rates rebates

176

109

97

107

77

92

124

108

134

180

187

216

289

137

Total

4,141

7,481

9,569

9,841

9,223

10,456

9,919

8,433

7,097

3,768

3,014

2,067

1,670

7,290

Disposable income

18,024

27,713

32,516

33,893

31,685

35,822

34,218

29,347

26,908

19,653

17,339

15,238

13,149

27,370

Equivalised disposable income

17,931

27,706

31,953

29,475

26,853

28,972

28,275

28,594

26,814

22,165

19,840

18,101

17,286

25,831

Indirect taxes

Taxes on final goods and services

VAT

1,577

2,084

2,294

2,441

2,638

2,643

2,505

2,266

2,255

1,656

1,559

1,201

831

2,104

Duty on tobacco

488

355

417

329

374

314

334

462

185

261

201

121

82

306

Duty on beer and cider

152

148

138

132

148

160

155

140

120

79

66

34

22

120

Duty on wines and spirits

223

155

129

145

161

168

179

183

158

122

113

100

77

148

Duty on hydrocarbon oils

408

446

524

551

563

632

653

513

447

367

280

171

110

463

Vehicle excise duty

75

107

138

158

157

177

181

156

164

130

118

82

54

138

Television licences

114

124

130

125

141

126

129

126

125

124

118

4

0

111

Stamp duty on house purchase

68

207

321

188

245

123

119

154

171

156

71

67

54

159

Customs duties

27

30

31

33

35

36

35

30

30

23

21

17

14

29

Betting taxes

7

24

25

31

33

39

40

49

54

44

36

40

38

36

Insurance premium tax

24

40

45

50

54

57

59

50

53

42

45

37

24

47

Air passenger duty

7

37

16

25

46

44

28

29

44

43

32

22

5

31

Camelot National Lottery Fund

9

26

30

43

58

60

68

82

71

62

63

52

33

53

Other

19

5

24

14

23

12

24

33

16

14

37

6

3

18

Intermediate taxes

Commercial and industrial rates

250

280

288

306

326

332

321

279

276

209

195

156

127

268

Employers’ NI contributions

441

493

508

540

574

586

566

491

486

369

344

276

223

472

Duty on hydrocarbon oils

151

168

174

184

196

200

193

168

166

126

118

94

76

162

Vehicle excise duty

13

14

14

15

16

17

16

14

14

11

10

8

6

13

Other

254

284

293

311

330

337

326

283

280

212

198

159

128

272

Total indirect taxes

4,305

5,025

5,538

5,620

6,119

6,062

5,932

5,510

5,113

4,050

3,624

2,646

1,907

4,950

Post-tax income

13,718

22,688

26,978

28,273

25,567

29,760

28,286

23,837

2,1795

15,603

13,715

12,593

11,242

22,420

Benefits in kind

Education

4,339

1,853

2,241

3,895

4,651

3,705

2,348

708

386

97

77

13

17

2,042

National health service

2,499

2,504

3,000

2,859

2,813

2,732

2,727

2,398

2,791

3,460

4,070

6,084

8,578

3,462

Housing subsidy

42

14

13

14

14

13

20

20

19

15

10

20

16

17

Rail travel subsidy

54

55

48

54

45

46

39

36

32

12

9

6

6

36

Bus travel subsidy

56

56

41

39

37

61

60

49

98

120

131

125

117

72

School meals and welfare milk

48

62

44

55

34

36

17

4

5

2

0

24

Total

7,038

4,544

5,386

6,916

7,595

6,593

5,211

3,214

3,331

3,707

4,298

6,248

8,735

5,651

Final income

20,756

27,233

32,364

35,188

33,162

36,353

33,496

27,051

25,127

19,310

18,013

18,841

19,977

28,071

1 Child tax credit and working tax credit.

2 Includes age-related payments.

3 Including tax relief at source on life assurance premiums.

Source:

Office for National Statistics