Income Distribution

Abstract

The article and adverts which introduce this chapter reflect the disparity of income and wealth in Britain. There is evidence to show that the poor are getting poorer and the rich richer. The growing differential is confirmed by data from the Family Expenditure Survey. Table 8.1 shows the population divided up into fifths or quintiles and tells us the proportion of total income each group earns. The top fifth of the population gained progressively throughout the 1980s but the bottom three-fifths received a smaller proportion of total income. In the late 1980s the top category received over 40 per cent of total income while the bottom group had less than 6 per cent.

Eddie Tyrell grew up in a street of twelve households in Liverpool’s dockside — five of which had families out of work. His parents were not among the lucky ones. Now 21 and unemployed since he left school, Eddie is bitterly aware of how he was deprived when he was growing up: the lack of money, lack of clothes and, what really sticks in his mind, the lack of food.

‘I laughed when I saw Ben Elton on the box joking about putting hot water on his cornflakes, because I used to do that,’ Eddie said. ‘I used to say to my sister: “I hate this house, there’s never anything to eat.” I used to cry.’

There are nearly a million young people under 19 who, like Eddie, are growing up in families where the head of the household is long-term unemployed. Most of them are trapped in pockets of poverty around the country, places which have missed out on the boom economy.

The Guardian, 4 May 1988.