More than half of households receive more cash in benefits than they pay in taxes, figures reveal_Nhy
More than half of households – or 35 million people – received more in benefits than they paid in taxes last year according to official figures.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the proportion stood at 52.6 per cent for the year to March 2023, the third year running that it has been higher than 50 per cent.
It comes as Labour grapples to bring down the £137 billion benefits bill – and after the Prime Minister promised ‘sweeping changes’.
The share of households receiving more in benefits than tax hit a record high of 55 per cent in the 2020-2021 financial year. It came down to 53.6 per cent in the following year and the to 52.6 per cent in 2022/23.
It is likely to reflect vast sums spent by the government to support households during the pandemic and later after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine prompted energy bills to spike.
Before the pandemic the share had previously been above 50 per cent over four years from 2009 to 2013 and again in 2018/19.
The figure had hovered around 40 per cent in the 1980s and 1990s before the dependence on welfare trended higher in the 2000s and 2010s.
The 35 million who received more benefits than they paid in taxes included more than 10 million retired people – or 85 per cent.
More than half of households – or 35 million people – received more in benefits than they paid in taxes last year according to official figures (File image)
It comes as Labour grapples to bring down the £137 billion benefits bill – and after the Prime Minister promised ‘sweeping changes’ (File image)
But it also included nearly 25 million, or 45 per cent, of those who were not retired.
That is likely partly to reflect the scourge of worklessness across the country.
The number of people of working age who are neither in employment nor looking for work stands at more than 9.3 million or more than a fifth of the population.
That includes a near-record 2.8 million classed as long-term sick as well as students and those who look after the family or home.
In a recent article for the Mail on Sunday, Sir Keir Starmer promised to try to tame the huge bill for welfare benefits – including a blitz on cheats and those who ‘game the system’.
Last month, Labour ministers pledged a drive to ‘get Britain working again’ and achieve an ‘ambitious’ target of getting another two million people into jobs – but were accused of putting off urgently needed reforms to cure sicknote Britain.
The government published a White Paper focused on employment support, including a revamp of Jobcentres and extra NHS appointments in unemployment hotspots.
But a shake-up of the benefits system and a crackdown on welfare spending will not take place for months with plans not even published until 2025.
Former pensions minister Ros Altmann said: ‘It certainly suggests that there is a disproportionate burden on those in society who pay tax.’
