Smallest ratio between income of rich and poor households since 1970s

The ratio between the income of the UK's richest and poorest households has fallen to its smallest since Margaret Thatcher became prime minister in 1979.

Average income for the country's richest fifth households in 2014/15 before taxes and benefits was £83,830, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This is 13.6 times greater than that of the poorest fifth, whose average income was £6,146.

The ratio has not been this small since 1977, when the most well-off households enjoyed an income 12.6 times that of the least well-off.

For much of the 1980s the gap grew steadily, peaking in 1991 when the richest households had an income around 29 times the size of the poorest.

But this figure had dropped to 23.6 by the time Tony Blair became prime minister in 1997, and was down to 17.2 when he left office in 2007.

David Cameron has seen the ratio fall from 16.5 to 1, when he became prime minister in 2010, to the current figure of 13.6 to 1.

The ONS figures also show that in 2014/15 just over half of all UK households (50.8%, or 13.6 million) received more in benefits - including benefits in kind, such as education and the NHS - than they paid in taxes.

It is the lowest number since 2008/09.

According to the ONS, the overall impact of taxes and benefits "leads to income being shared more equally between households".

This is because the amount received from cash benefits such as tax credits, housing benefit and income support tends to be higher for poorer households than for richer households.

The richest fifth paid the equivalent of 23% of their gross income in direct taxes last year, while the poorest fifth paid just 11%.

Once all taxes and benefits are taken into account, the ratio between the income of the UK's richest and poorest households falls to under 4 to 1.