What is National Insurance for?

Oldbiggles

A ‘phone in’ on Radio Bristol today about the comments made by George Osborne re: Benefits.

An elderly lady related how she was paying £17 per hour each several times a week for 4 helpers to assist her husband who is now bed ridden. Both of them have worked all their lives until normal retirement age. They have paid National Insurance and provided for their children and grandchildren as most people do, and they have managed to save money as well. But because they have these savings they are told that they cannot get financial help from Benefits.

If they had instead been allowed to buy an Insurance policy with a private Insurance Co. instead of the Government run Insurance scheme they would now be entitled to help under their Policy and their savings would not be questioned by the Company. So how come the Government run Insurance scheme that we are ‘forced’ to pay into all our working lives refuses to pay out in time of need without asking about savings?


:mad:

tpl

National insurance pays towards:
Jobseeker’s Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, contributory Employment and Support Allowance, Bereavement Benefits, State Retirement Pension and Maternity Allowance. Everyone will have received one, some or all of these throughout their working life (some more than others) or after retirement.

Care services are different - NI does not cover care services. In Bristol if you have over £23,250 in savings you will have to contribute full cost of any care services received. If you have less than that, a contribution to pay towards services is calculated. There are still other benefits that can be claimed depending on need and circumstances (eg. attendance allowance, pension credit, housing benefit, council tax benefit).

Wywth

Oldbiggles wrote: »

What is National Insurance for?

To keep the headline income tax rate artificially low

System

NI ceased to be for a specific purpose a long time ago. It is now just another income into the Government's coffers to be spent as they see fit

tpl

so, who pays for Jobseeker’s Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, contributory Employment and Support Allowance, Bereavement Benefits, State Retirement Pension and Maternity Allowance? And why can't you claim JA if you haven't contributed NI for a certain amount of time? Does income tax pay for similar things?

System

it all comes out of central coffers. Qualifying criteria have nothing to do with the source of the money

tpl

It's still got to be paid for! The money to pay for these things doesn't come of out nowhere! Who else pays for it? You can't claim employee related benefits if you haven't worked and paid NI.

Oldbiggles

tpl wrote: »

National insurance pays towards:
Jobseeker’s Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, contributory Employment and Support Allowance, Bereavement Benefits, State Retirement Pension and Maternity Allowance. Everyone will have received one, some or all of these throughout their working life (some more than others) or after retirement.

Care services are different - NI does not cover care services. In Bristol if you have over £23,250 in savings you will have to contribute full cost of any care services received. If you have less than that, a contribution to pay towards services is calculated. There are still other benefits that can be claimed depending on need and circumstances (eg. attendance allowance, pension credit, housing benefit, council tax benefit).

In the year ‘Nineteen hundred and freezing to death’ a Scheme was launched by the then Government called the National Health Insurance scheme. It was referred to as cradle to the grave cover. Every working person was required to pay into this scheme with the promise that they would be cared for when they became ill.
If the man referred to below who has returned home from hospital and is now being cared for by his elderly wife doesn’t deserve some help then I don’t know who does. If he had been kept in Hospital he would continue to be cared for by the nursing staff at no extra cost to this couple. His wife, however, is pleased to have him home with her.
Over the years successive Government have manipulated the scheme to suit their own agendas and it is being treated as yet more revenue, like the Tax system, for MP’s to squander on things like overseas aid which is constantly being misused by foreign Governments.

tpl

'If he had been kept in Hospital he would continue to be cared for by the nursing staff at no extra cost to this couple'


Hospitals do not provide on-going social care, they provide medical intervention until someone is medically fit for discharge...people can then either return home with a package of care if assessed as needed, or if their needs are higher and they wish to and/or qualify - to residential or nursing care (with a health care component). Self-funding people can pay for and get what they want at any time. The strain on social care and health services (and staff) is immense, and current systems are coping with circumstances that are very different from when they were originally set up (including NHS (v. sadly currently being privatised) and the welfare state). Care and clinical/medical intervention are different things. NI was part of the welfare - social security system - not the NHS. People are living longer and longer due to medical advances, with associated demands on health and social care systems, which is only going to get worse according to population statistics.

Brassedoff

When at University I was told NI directly paid for your benefit contributions only. I had a quick look around and the most basic guide I found that is easily understood by all I hope is on the BBC site. I know I pay three different types, employee, employer and my class 2 for being self employed.

NI Explained

richard9991

national insurance is for all non means tested benefits and state pensions income tax pays for all meens tested benefits also Attendance Allowance Carers /DLA