Approximately 90% of us pay more in taxes than we receive in welfare payments throughout our lifetime.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) recently conducted research which suggests that around 9 in 10 of UK tax payers contribute more in tax than is received back from the state. Peter Levell, one of the authors of the report, said: “While over a third of individuals receive more in social security than they pay in taxes in a single year, this is true for very few when you look over an entire lifetime.”
Image via The Telegraph
The report also suggests that inequality could be lower when measured over the course of a lifetime as opposed to over a single year. The poorest tenth percent of the population spend as much as two thirds of their lives in employment, which means that it may be wise for the government to focus their efforts on improving in-work benefits in order to reduce inequality further.
