Survey for The Equality Trust on Tax Credits
Ipsos asked a nationally representative sample of adults about their perceptions of tax credit withdrawal rates on behalf of The Equality Trust.
Participants were asked to first consider a situation involving a working parent currently entitled to and receiving tax credits and whose gross annual income from their employer is £10,600. They were then asked to imagine that this parent earned an extra £1.
When asked how much of this extra £1 they thought a working parent would get to keep after income tax and National Insurance had been deducted from this £1 and tax credits decreased, the median response was 50p, with the mean response being 45.5p.
In comparison, when asked how much of this extra £1 they thought a working parent should get to keep after taxes had been deducted and tax credits decreased, the median response was 75p, with a mean of 66.9p.
Participants were then asked to choose which person – a working parent with a gross annual income of £10,600 and receiving tax credits, or a working parent with a gross annual income of £150,000 - they thought should get to keep the most if they were to earn an extra £1 of income.
57% chose the working parent with an income of £10,600 and receiving tax credits.
When the current actual amounts these individuals get to keep were revealed, the figure choosing the parent receiving tax credits increased by two percentage points to 59%.
Technical note
Research was conducted using Ipsos’s online i:Omnibus among a quota sample of 2,246 adults aged 16-75 in the United Kingdom from 27th November – 2nd December 2015. The survey data were weighted by age, gender, region, social grade and working status to the known offline profile of the UK population aged 16-75.
