Social Security Amendment Act 1974
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1974 c. 58 |
Social SecurityAmendment Act 1974
1974 CHAPTER 58
An Act to amend the provisions of the Social Security Act 1973 as to the rate or amount of contributions; to alter the meaning of ‘year’ in certain provisions of that Act; to extend the power to enable friendly societies to conduct business with a view to establishing occupational pension schemes; to amend section 58 of the National Insurance Act 1965, sections 29(c ), 40(1) and 49 of the said Act of 1973 and certain enactments corresponding to the said sections 58 and 40(1); to amend certain enactments in connection with the consolidation of social security legislation; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[12th December 1974]
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:—
1 Contributions.
(1) The amounts and percentages specified in sections 2 to 5 of the Social Security Act 1973 (which relate to contributions under Part I of that Act) shall be increased as follows—
(a ) in section 2(1) (which provides that the upper and lower earnings limits for Class 1 contributions shall be respectively 8 and 48) for ‘8’ there shall be substituted ‘11’ and for ‘48’ there shall be substituted ‘69’;
(b ) in section 2(6) (which provides that a Class 1 contribution shall be the following percentage of the relevant earnings, namely 5.25% in the case of a primary contribution at the standard rate, 0.6% in the case of a primary contribution at the reduced rate and 7.5% in the case of a secondary contribution) for ‘5.25’ there shall be substituted ‘5.5’, for ‘0.6’ there shall be substituted ‘2’ and for ‘7.5’ there shall be substituted ‘8.5’;
(c ) in section 3(1) (under which Class 2 contributions are at the rate of 1.68 a week) for ‘1.68’ there shall be substituted ‘2.41’;
(d ) in section 3(5) (under which a person liable for Class 2 contributions in respect of an employment as a self-employed earner may be excepted from the liability for any period for which his earnings from the employment are less than 468 a year) for ‘468’ there shall be substituted ‘675’;
(e ) in section 4(1) (under which the amount of a Class 3 contribution is 1.33) for ‘1.33’ there shall be substituted ‘1.90’;
(f ) in section 5(2) and (9) (under which a Class 4 contribution is 5% of so much of the relevant gains or profits as exceeds 1,150 and does not exceed 2,500) for ‘5 per cent.’ there shall be substituted ‘8 per cent.’, for ‘1,150’ (including ‘1,150’ in section 5(9)(c )) there shall be substituted ‘1,600’ and for ‘2,500’ there shall be substituted ‘3,600’;
and in section 45(3)(e ) of that Act (which provides that the appropriate national health service allocation in the case of Class 4 contributions is 0.4% of the earnings for which the contributions were paid) for ‘0.4’ there shall be substituted ‘0.6’.
(2) No primary Class 1 contribution shall be payable in respect of—
(a ) an employed earner falling within paragraph (a ) or (b ) of section 2(7) of the Social Security Act 1973 (which relate to persons over pensionable age who either have retired from regular employment or have not so retired but did not satisfy the contribution conditions for a Category A retirement pension on attaining that age); or
(b ) a woman over pensionable age who was married when she attained that age and has not retired from regular employment and—
but nothing in this subsection affects any liability to pay secondary Class 1 contributions in respect of any person.
(3) A woman who has been widowed and—
(a ) is liable apart from this subsection to pay primary Class 1 contributions at the standard rate; and
(b ) falls within a class of women prescribed for the purposes of this paragraph,
shall be liable to pay those contributions at the reduced rate for prescribed earnings except that she shall be liable to pay them at the standard rate for any of those earnings as respects which she hals, in accordance with regulations, elected to pay those contributions at the standard rate and not revoked the election.
(4) In section 42 of the Social Security Act 1973 (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the principal Act’)—
(a ) in subsection (2) (which states that regulations shall provide for enabling a married woman or widow to elect to pay primary Class 1 contributions at the reduced rate or not to pay Class 2 contributions) after the word ‘provide’ there shall be inserted and be deemed always to have been inserted the words ‘, subject to any prescribed conditions and exceptions,’; and
(b ) subsection (4) (which authorises the making of regulations about the liability for contributions of women who have been widowed) shall be omitted;
and accordingly in section 2(7)(c ) and 3(2)(c ) of that Act the words ‘or (4)’ shall be omitted.
2 Provisions supplementary to s. 1.
(1) The Secretary of State shall not be required by virtue of subsection (1) of section 7 of the principal Act (which among other things provides for the alteration by order of the amounts of basic scheme contributions, and of the figures related to such contributions, by reference to changes in the general level of earnings which have taken place in and since the year 1971-72) to carry out a review with a view to determining whether to make an order under that section in relation to the first year of operation of sections 2 to 5 of that Act; and accordingly in that subsection for the words from the beginning to ‘Secretary of State’ there shall be substituted the words ‘As soon as may be after 6th April 1975 the Secretary of State’, for the words ‘1971-72’ there shall be substituted the words ‘1973-74’ and for the words ‘first year’ there shall be substituted the words ‘second year’.
(2) Any regulations made by virtue of subsection (4) of section 42 of the principal Act shall be treated as made by virtue of subsection (1) of that section (under which Part I of the principal Act may be modified by regulations in its application to women who are or have been married); and it is hereby declared that nothing in the said subsection (4) prejudiced the generality of the said subsection (1).
(3) Subsections (2) and (3) of the preceding section shall be construed as one with the principal Act, but section 97(1) of that Act (which provides that no regulations shall be made under specified provisions of that Act unless a draft of the regulations has been approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament) and paragraph 15(1) of Schedule 25 to that Act (which relates to regulations made for Northern Ireland under those provisions) shall have effect as if the said subsection (3) were included among those provisions.
(4) In subsection (6) of section 8 of the principal Act (which provides that an order under that section shall not increase by more than 0.25 per cent. the percentage specified in section 2(6) or 5(2) of that Act as originally passed) for the words ‘originally passed’ there shall be substituted the words ‘for the time being amended by any other Act’.
3 Meaning of ‘year’.
3. The following references to a year in the principal Act, namely—
shall be construed as references to an income tax year within the meaning of that Act.
4 Conduct by friendly societies of business for establishing occupational pension schemes.
4. In section 71(1) of the principal Act (under which regulations may enable a registered society within the meaning of the Friendly Societies Acts 1896 to 1971 to conduct approved group insurance business with a view to the establishment of occupational pension schemes by reference to which the employment of members of the society can be recognised pensionable employment) the words from ‘by reference’ onwards shall be omitted.
5 Miscellaneous amendments, and amendments in connection with the consolidation of social security legislation.
(1) Section 58 of the National Insurance Act 1965 (which relates to payments in lieu of contributions) shall have effect, and shall be deemed to have had effect from the beginning of 15th February 1971, subject to the amendment specified in regulation 4(9) of the Family Allowances, National Insurance, Industrial Injuries and Miscellaneous Provisions (Decimalisation of the Currency) Regulations 1970 (which provides for a payment in lieu of contributions of a specified amount for each complete contribution week during the relevant period of service for which contributions were payable at the non-participating employment rate) but with the substitution for the words from ‘complete’ to ‘employment rate’ of the words ‘contribution week beginning during that period’.
(2) The preceding subsection shall apply to section 57 of the...
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