A little unique idea, but a big project
What is the contribution calculator, how did this project begin and what makes it different?
We became interested in how individual citizens perceived their contribution to society, both in monetary and social terms. We decided to investigate whether we were able to create a simple calculator that would tell us.
It is very difficult to calculate the worth of an individual or a family unit. We all have differing concepts of what constitutes a meaningful contribution to our local and national communities. Providing social care to our relatives, voluntering for charities and assisting our local school will not appear on any balance sheet and cannot be easily quantified. One aspect of our productivity that can be numerated is our financial contribution to the public purse. This will be through various taxes that we pay out of our income or in our day to day spending.
With this in mind we embarked on a quest to build tools that enable the curious to discover exactly how much they contribute or how much they receive in benefits. This will not just show how much tax you have paid during your working life, but throughout your lifetime.
The tools we will provide are individual elements borne out of this concept. These include a simple salary calculator that will provide a breakdown of your earned income and a calculator that will show your total tax contribution per year. We will be adding new tools to provide more representative results as and when we can. The data will be frequently updated to make our estimates as accurate as possible.