Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Taylor of Holbeach on 31 January (HL Deb, col 1584), on what data they base their claim that income inequality is lower than in 2010; and whether those data take account of housing costs.

This statistic is based on the ONS’s ‘Household disposable income and inequality in the UK: financial year ending 2017’ report, released January 2018. It shows that the Gini coefficient for disposable income inequality is lower than it was in 2010.

This measure of disposable income takes account of direct taxes and benefits, but does not take account of housing costs. The ONS do not publish a Gini coefficient on an after housing cost basis.