HMRC points to rich/poor gap

30/07/2009

The gap between Britain's richest and poorest remains wide, according to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

In a wide-ranging new report, the tax authority said that households in the top 20 per cent income bracket earned £52,400 after taxes and benefits over 2007/08.

Those in the bottom 20 per cent earned £14,300 - around four times less.

This pay gap remains largely unchanged from 2006/07.

"During the 1990s and 2000s, there were periods of both rising and falling inequality, but the level of inequality remained high by historical standards - the large increase which took place in the second half of the 1980s has not been reversed," HMRC said in the report.

The study also revealed that people in the top quarter of annual earnings paid £1 in every £4 to the government in direct taxes.

For those in the bottom quarter, this proportion stood at just over £1 in every £10.

Retired people and single people with children were revealed to be some of the demographic groups which received the largest benefits to their income from the state.

Tags; Income Worries and Debt, Young Family Finances, Retirement Money Problems, Recent Graduate Debt,

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