Published in December 2011, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report ‘Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising’ shows rising inequality in OECD countries, with the fastest rise in the UK.
The report shows that ‘Income inequality among working-age persons has risen faster in the United Kingdom than in any other OECD country since 1975. From a peak in 2000 and subsequent fall, it has been rising again since 2005 and is now well above the OECD average’.
A key finding of the report is that ‘tax and benefit systems play a major role in reducing market-driven inequality, but have become less effective at redistributing income since the mid-1990s’.
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