FOI reference: FOI-2026-3475
You asked
I would like to know the following:
Separately for:
- White English
- Indian heritage
- Pakistan heritage
- Chinese heritage
- Iranian heritage
- Irish heritage
- Black British Heritage
Total amount of tax paid in a year
Total amount of benefits claimed in a calendar year.
How that equates on a per person basis.
We said
Thank you for your request.
The most relevant data we have produced are estimates of average equivalised household income by ethnicity, available in Table 23 of our Effects of taxes and benefits on household income dataset and in our Effect of Taxes and Benefits on UK Household Income bulletin, currently available up to financial year ending 2024. Table 23 provides estimates of original income, gross income, disposable income, post-tax income, and final income by ethnicity. Definitions of each of these income types can be found in Section 4: Glossary of our Effects of taxes and benefits on UK household income: financial year ending 2024 bulletin.
Estimates of taxes paid and benefits claimed would need to be created. We may be able to produce this for you via our bespoke services. Such services are subject to legal frameworks, resources, and agreement of costs in line with our charging policy. However, please note we will not be able to provide data for the specific ethnic groups you have requested because our analyses use broader, harmonised ethnicity categories to maintain reliable sample sizes. We may be able to produce estimates for the following ethnic groups:
Asian or Asian British
Black, Black British, Caribbean or African
Mixed or multiple ethic groups
White
Other ethnic groups
If you would like to request bespoke datasets, please contact the Household Income and Expenditure Analysis team at hie@ons.gov.uk to discuss your requirements further.