§ 22. Mr. Hardyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer in which Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries a person on average income contributes a higher share of his or her income by way of income tax and social security contributions than he or she does in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. RidleyAs average income figures for OECD countries are not available, I regret it is not possible to give the information requested.
OECD does, however, publish statistics relating to the earnings of an "average production worker" which showed that in 1980 a single person on that income level would have paid a higher proportion of his income in income tax and social security contributions than in the United Kingdom in six of the 21 countries for which information is available. For a married couple with two children a higher proportion would have been paid in five countries.