Inequality: Facts behind the fiction

All the drama-documentaries in the IF series are based on rigorous journalism and research.

Here are a few facts about wealth distribution and taxation in the UK.

One fifth of the UK's poorest households do not have any type of bank or building society account.
(Source: Joseph Rowntree Foundation - Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2002)

A childless couple with over £805 in net income - or a combined salary of £57,000 - are in the top 5% of earners in the UK.
(Source: Department for Work and Pensions 2001-2)

The top tenth of the UK population now receives a greater share of total net income than the entire bottom half.
(Source: Department for Work and Pensions 2001-2)

In 2001-2, over 40% of people in lone-parent households were in the poorest fifth of the UK population and 73% in the poorest two-fifths.
(Source: Department for Work and Pensions 2001-2)

In 2001-2, ethnic minority households made up 8.6% of the UK population but also made up 15% of the poorest fifth.
(Source: Department for Work and Pensions 2001-2)

In the 2002 British Social Attitudes Survey, more than four-fifths of the population say the gap between high and low incomes is too large.
(Source: British Social Attitudes Survey, 2002)

At the end of 2001, 2.4m or 20% of all UK children rely on income support; more than double the proportion in 1979 (7.3%).
(Source: Child Poverty Action Group, December 2001)

The total number of crimes reported to the British Crime Survey fell by 17% since 1999.
(Source: British Crime Survey 2003)

43% of respondents that read tabloid newspapers thought national crime had increased a lot, compared to 26% of broadsheet readers.
(Source: British Crime Survey 2003)

In April 1999 the minimum wage was introduced to the UK at £3.60 per hour.
(Source: Department for Work and Pensions)

The Inland Revenue estimates that £85bn is channelled our of the UK in into offshore tax havens every year.
(Source: Inland Revenue)

The top rate of income tax reached 83% between 1975 and 1979, Margaret Thatcher's government cut the top rate to 60% and then to 40% in 1988.
(Source: Tolley's Income Tax)

7% of the population earn over £35,000 and currently pay the top rate of tax
(Source: Institute of Fiscal Studies: Is Middle Britain Middle Income Britain?)

There are 1000 gated communities in England alone.
(Source: Glasgow University, Department of Urban Studies)