Whose income rose fastest under the Tories?

‘Handouts from the state do not nurture the same sense of self-reliant dignity as a fair wage,’ says Keir Starmer in an article for the Sunday Telegraph. He’s right. Being in work is the most effective bulwark against poverty. Yet time and time again, government fairness is judged in terms of how it tweaks benefits rather than what was done to get more people into work. It’s a common belief that under the Tories, the lowest-paid were hammered and the best-paid walked away with the most. 

When Tories cut benefits, it’s usually to incentivise people to move from welfare into work – and make not just them but society better off overall. That’s the theory, but what’s the results?

The single most important figure for measuring that comes from something called the Family Resource Survey, an in-depth annual study of more than 20,000 households. It measures household income after all factors (including the all-important housing costs).