Gap between rich and poor unchanged

The gap between rich and poor has failed to narrow despite the redistributive effect of taxes and benefits introduced by the Labour government, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics. A review of household incomes over the past 30 years revealed that the share of disposable income earned by the top fifth households rose from 36 per cent to 42 per cent between 1977 and 1991. And in spite of Labour’s efforts ‘the pattern that emerged during the 1980s remains largely the same today’. The top fifth of households in 2006/7 received 42 per cent of disposable income while the bottom fifth received just seven per cent. In 1977 19 per cent of children lived in the poorest fifth of homes, now a quarter of children live in the poorest fifth households.