§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the proportion of income represented by net payments of council tax after benefits in each income quintile from 1996–97.[142419]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
National Statistician and Registrar General
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Jim Cousins dated 8 December 2003:
335WAs National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking for the proportion of income represented by net payments of council tax after benefits in each income quintile group from 1996–97 onwards. (142419)Estimates in the following table are produced from the Office for National Statistics' analysis "The effects of taxes and benefits on household income" published on the National Statistics website on October 21st 2003 at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/taxesbenefits. The analysis includes measures of income inequality for the United Kingdom as a whole based on data from the Expenditure and Food Survey. This is a sample survey covering about 7,500 households in the UK and sample sizes are only sufficient to give approximate estimates. In particular, results for the lowest quintile are less reliable than for others because of greater variability. The Family Resources Survey would have been an alternative source with a larger sample size, but the taxes and benefits analysis has been used for consistency with answers to other recent parliamentary questions.The table shows, from 1996–97 to 2001–02, the net council tax paid by all households in Great Britain as a percentage of gross income and for each income quintile group where households are ranked by equivalised disposable income. Council tax is not paid in Northern Ireland. Equivalisation is a standard methodology that takes into account the size and composition of households and adjusts their incomes to recognise differing demands on resources. The net council tax figures are gross council tax less reported council tax benefits and discounts. The table also shows the boundaries between equivalised disposable income quintiles for GB. For example, the 1st quintile boundary is the income level below which one fifth of those households are estimated to lie.
1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 Quintile Income boundary1 (£ per year)
Net council tax as % of gross income
Income boundary1 (£ per year)
Net council tax as % of gross income
Income boundary1 (£ per year)
Net council tax as % of gross income
Bottom 4.2 4.2 4.8 9,193 9,821 10,397 2nd 3.4 3.3 3.3 13,221 13,893 14,717 3rd 2.7 2.1 2.8 18,324 19,134 20,042 4th 2.2 2.2 2.3 26,295 27,296 28,596 Top 1.4 1.5 1.4 Average for all households 2.2 2.2 2.2 1 Boundary point between equivalised disposable income quantities Source:
Office for national Statistics, based on the analysis 'The effect of taxes and benefits on household income', published on the ONS website and in Economic Trends.