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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Heading for retirement?
— National Insurance, state pensions, and the future of the contributory principle in the UK | | Author(s) | John Hills |
| Journal title | Journal of Social Policy, vol 33, no 3, July 2004 |
| Pages | pp 347-371 |
| Source | http://www.journals.cambridge.org |
| Keywords | National insurance contributions ; Pensions ; Social policy. |
| Annotation | The implications are discussed of the decline of National Insurance (NI) in Britain, witnessed by the declining share of social security spending and the steady dilution of the "contributory principle" on which it was originally based. This decline is not accidental: under the governments of the Left, arguments for inclusion have predominated, non-contributory benefits expanded, and contribution conditions softened; under those of the Right, limited resources have been focused on the poorest through means-testing. From this starting point, the strong arguments in principle for social insurance look much weaker. However, there are also reasons why the system has not been swept away, notably the way in which most of it concerns already accrued state pension rights. The effects of current plans for state pensions is to restore something closer to a flat rate state pension, but with significant complexity. The article suggests a way in which a more transparent system could guarantee a total state pension as a fixed percentage of average earnings. Other NI benefits could either be separated from pensions and absorbed within other working age social security, or the scope of NI could be maintained, but based on a test of participation, not past contributions. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-040811202 A |
| Classmark | JBC: JJ: TM2 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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