A think-tank report examined the national insurance system in Britain and proposed that it be replaced by compulsory 'personal welfare accounts', based on the contributory principle.
Source: Peter Saunders, Beyond Beveridge: Restoring the contributory principle to retirement pensions and welfare benefits, Civitas
Links: Report | Civitas press release
Date: 2013-Nov
A research paper outlined the provisions of the National Insurance Contributions Bill.
Source: Antony Seely, National Insurance Contributions Bill, Research Paper 13/60, House of Commons Library
Links: HOC Library research paper
Date: 2013-Nov
The National Insurance Contributions Bill was given a second reading. The Bill was designed to make provision in relation to national insurance contributions, including the introduction of the Employment Allowance, initially set at £2000 per annum.
Source: National Insurance Contributions Bill, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO | Debate 4 November 2013, columns 37-81, House of Commons Hansard, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard
Date: 2013-Nov
The National Insurance Contributions Bill was published. The Bill was designed to make provision in relation to national insurance contributions, including the introduction of the employment allowance, initially set at £2,000 per annum.
Source: National Insurance Contributions Bill, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | HMRC note
Date: 2013-Oct
A think-tank report said that the contributory principle should be restored to the social security system, in order to reward work and tackle criticisms about a 'nothing for something' culture in benefits. Workers who had made sufficient national insurance contributions should be rewarded with a higher £95-per-week rate of jobseeker's allowance (funded by cutting the support for the mortgage interest scheme).
Source: Duncan O'Leary, Something for Something: Restoring a contributory principle to the welfare state, Demos
Links: Report | Demos press release | New Statesman report
Date: 2013-Jun
A think-tank report examined what it would take to construct (or reconstruct) a sustainable system of contributory benefits. The system needed to: resolve the 'free-rider' problem, by tackling the 'something for nothing' issue; ensure an approximate relationship between payments made to the system by contributors, and what each person perceived they were likely to get out of it during their working life; restrict the likelihood that claimants would change their behaviour because they did not bear the cost of drawing on the system, minimizing moral hazard; and be designed to be distinct from the rest of the public finances, so as to avoid being subverted by governments over time.
Source: Ian Mulheirn, Re-Engineering Contributory Welfare, Social Market Foundation
Links: Paper | New Statesman report
Date: 2013-May
A think-tank report said that the treatment of self-employed people for national insurance was unduly generous, and also encouraged tax avoidance. Increasing contributions from self-employed people to a fairer level could raise £2.3 billion per year.
Source: Adam Corlett, Ending the Self-Employment Tax Break, CentreForum
Links: Report | CentreForum press release | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-May
An article examined the arguments being advanced in favour of reasserting the contributory principle in the benefits system; separated out the different conceptions of 'contributory welfare' being advocated; explored where these conceptions might lead if they were pushed through into policy and practice; and considered how the different principles and options in play could link to a wider 'welfare' strategy.
Source: Graeme Cooke, 'Contributory welfare: could the concept of contributions-based welfare help re-galvanise support for the system?', Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture, Winter 2012 Issue 52
Links: Article
Date: 2013-Jan