National Insurance

National Insurance was the beginning of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It was started by the National Insurance Act 1911. The idea of insurance was attractive to Lloyd George because it kept individual responsibility. In Britain there were flat rate contributions and flat rate benefits. In Europe both contributions and benefits were generally relative to the workers normal pay.^[1] It has changed a great deal since then.

in 1912 the workers who paid their National Insurance could visit a General practitioner and get medicine they were prescribed without paying. But this did not include their families.^[2]

People are given a National Insurance number, often called a NINo, when they are 16. They must have this to get work. Workers make regular payments calculated as a fraction of their pay. The payments are collected and recorded by HM Revenue and Customs. Until 1973 people had a card for each year with stamps to show they had paid. After that it was joined to the system for collecting income tax.^[3] They can then get benefits when they cannot work.

1. ↑ Ogus, A; Barendt, E M (1988). The Law of Social Security (3 ed.). London: Butterworths. p. 3. ISBN 0406063370.
2. ↑ Abel-Smith, Brian (1978). National Health Service The first thirty years. London: HMSO. ISBN 0113202490.
3. ↑ Ogus, A; Barendt, E M (1988). The Law of Social Security (3 ed.). London: Butterworths. p. 34. ISBN 0406063370.