National Insurance Act 1966
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1966 c. 6 |
| Year | 1966 |
National Insurance Act 1966
1966 CHAPTER 6
An Act to make provision for the payment under the National Insurance Act 1965 of earnings-related benefit by way of increases of unemployment benefit, sickness benefit and widow's allowance; to make other amendments of that Act and of the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act 1965; and for connected purposes.
[10th March 1966]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Contributions and benefits under Insurance Act
1 Amendments relating to graduated contributions.
(1) With a view to enabling the payment under the Insurance Act of the earnings-related benefits provided for by sections 2 and 4 of this Act—
(a ) the amount of the graduated contributions payable under that Act in respect of an employed contributor's employment which is not a non-participating employment shall be increased in accordance with subsection (2) of this section;
(b ) graduated contributions shall also become payable under that Act in respect of a non-participating employment, but of the lower amount for which provision is made by the said subsection (2) in relation to such employment; and
(c ) the provisions of that Act specified in Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments so specified.
(2) For section 4(1)(c ) of the Insurance Act (under which the amount of the graduated contribution payable by an employed person and by his employer is in each case four and a quarter per cent. of the amount, up to nine pounds, by which the employed person's remuneration in any week exceeds nine pounds) there shall be substituted the following:—
‘(c ) except where the employment is at the time of the payment a non-participating employment, the amount of the graduated contribution payable by each of them shall be the aggregate of—
(i) four and three quarters per cent. of any amount, up to nine pounds, by which that payment exceeds nine pounds (or of the equivalent amount for remuneration not paid weekly); and
(ii) a half per cent. of any amount, up to twelve pounds, by which that payment exceeds eighteen pounds (or of the equivalent amount for remuneration not paid weekly); and
(d ) where the employment is at the time of the payment a non-participating employment, the amount of the graduated contribution payable by each of them shall be a half per cent of any amount, up to twenty-one pounds, by which that payment exceeds nine pounds (or of the equivalent amount for remuneration not paid weekly).’
2 Benefit under Insurance Act by way of earnings-related supplement.
(1) Benefit under the Insurance Act shall include earnings-related supplement which shall be payable by way of an increase of the weekly rate of unemployment benefit or sickness benefit.
(2) Subject to section 3(1) of this Act and to the provisions of this section, earnings-related supplement shall be payable to a person in respect of any day of unemployment or of incapacity for work falling on or after the appointed day—
(a ) in respect of which he is entitled to unemployment benefit or sickness benefit; and
(b ) on which he is over the age of eighteen and under pensionable age; and
(c ) which forms part of a period of interruption of employment and is not earlier than the thirteenth day of that period.
(3) Where a person has been entitled to earnings-related supplement in respect of an aggregate of one hundred and fifty-six days in (or in what, but for section 21(3)(b ) of the Insurance Act, would have been) the same period of interruption of employment, he shall not be entitled thereto in respect of any further day in that period.
(4) Subject to any regulations made by virtue of subsection (8)(b ) or (d ) of this section, the weekly rate of earnings-related supplement in respect of any day shall be whichever is the less of the following amounts, namely—
(a ) an amount equal to one-third of the amount, up to twenty-one pounds, by which the claimant's average weekly earnings for the relevant income tax year exceeded nine pounds; or
(b ) the amount, if any, by which the weekly rate of the amount payable to the claimant by way of unemployment benefit or sickness benefit in respect of that day, including any increase of that weekly rate under section 40(1) or 43(1) or (2) of the Insurance Act, falls short of eighty-five per cent. of those average weekly earnings.
(5) For the purposes of subsection (4) of this section—
(a ) a person's average weekly earnings for any income tax year shall be taken to be one-fiftieth of his reckonable earnings for that year;
(b ) the expression ‘reckonable earnings’, in relation to any person, means, subject to any regulations under section 114(5) of the Insurance Act, that person's remuneration within the meaning of section 4(2) of that Act;
(c ) the expression ‘relevant income tax year’, in relation to any such day forming part of a period of interruption of employment as is mentioned in subsection (2) of this section, means, subject to any regulations made by virtue of subsection (8)(e ) of this section, the last complete income tax year before the beginning of the earnings-related benefit year in which that period began;
(d ) the expression ‘earnings-related benefit year’ means, subject to any regulations made by virtue of subsection (8)(f ) of this section, a period beginning with the first Monday in May in any year and ending with the Sunday immediately preceding the first Monday in May in the next following year.
(6) Where a widow who is not entitled to unemployment benefit or sickness benefit in respect of any day—
(a ) is, or in such circumstances as may be prescribed by regulations would be, entitled in respect of that day to such other benefit as may be so prescribed, being—
(i) benefit under the Insurance Act or under the Industrial Injuries Act; or
(b ) would be entitled in respect of that day to unemployment benefit or sickness benefit but for either or both of the following, namely, the operation of section 21 of the Insurance Act or her failure to satisfy the contribution conditions for that benefit,
that widow shall be treated for the purposes of this section as entitled in respect of that day to unemployment benefit or, as the case may be, sickness benefit at a nominal weekly rate.
(7) Where, in the case of a person entitled to earnings-related supplement in respect of any day, a payment by way of unemployment benefit or sickness benefit does not, but a payment by way of injury benefit under section 11 of the Industrial Injuries Act does, fall to be made to that person in respect of that day, the earnings-related supplement may be paid with the injury benefit; and a person to whom earnings-related supplement in respect of any day has been paid in accordance with this subsection shall not by reason of that payment be treated for the purposes of section 21(2)(b ) of the Insurance Act as having been entitled to sickness benefit in respect of that day.
(8) Regulations may—
(a ) provide for treating a person for the purposes of this section as having been entitled to benefit for any day if he would have been so entitled but for any delay or failure to make or prosecute a claim or give a notice, so, however, that he shall not be so treated where he shows that he did not intend, by failing to acquire or establish a right to benefit for that day, to cause a new period of interruption of employment to begin for the purposes of earnings-related supplement;
(b ) vary the provisions of subsection (4)(b ) of this section for the purposes of the application of this section to any particular case or class of case;
(c ) vary the conditions for the payment of earnings-related supplement in respect of any day to a widow where that widow is, or in the circumstances prescribed under subsection (6)(a ) of this section would be, entitled in respect of that day to any other benefit so prescribed;
(d ) make provision for calculating the amounts payable by way of earnings-related supplement under this section or of widow's supplementary allowance under section 4(1) of this Act according to a prescribed scale or otherwise adjusting them so as to avoid fractional amounts or otherwise facilitate computation;
(e ) provide that the relevant income tax year for the purposes of earnings-related supplement shall be such other income tax year than that specified in subsection (5)(c ) of this section as may be prescribed by the regulations;
(f ) provide that the earnings-related benefit year shall, instead of being the period specified in subsection (5)(d ) of this section, be such other period of fifty-two or fifty-three contribution weeks as may be prescribed by the regulations;
(g ) require employers to maintain such records of the reckonable earnings within the meaning of subsection (5)(b ) of this section of persons employed by them as may be prescribed by the regulations, and to retain those records for such period as may be so prescribed;
and any records maintained under regulations made by virtue of paragraph (g ) of this subsection shall be included among the documents which may be required to be produced for inspection under section 90(3) of the Insurance Act.
(9) Any question arising under this section or section 4 of this Act with respect to any person's reckonable earnings within the...
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