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If you are an employed or self-employed worker who pays national insurance contributions, or an employer with a payroll, the Office of Tax Simplification would like to hear your views.

Background

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) was set up in 2010 to advise the Government on how the tax system could be simplified. They have now been asked by the Government to review the current income tax and National Insurance rules to see whether they can be more closely aligned and what effects such an alignment might have.

The Office of Tax Simplification would like to hear from as many people as possible and has developed some key questions relating to its review. If you would like to be involved, then please send in your answers to as many of the key questions as you would like to respond to, using the email or postal addresses given on that web page, by 31 December 2015.

What are National Insurance contributions?

As you may be aware, National Insurance contributions are payable on their wages by most employees and are automatically deducted from pay by employers; National Insurance contributions are also payable on business profits by the self-employed, and they are included in their overall tax payments made either once or twice per year. The contributions collected by the Government are used to help fund the payment of many state benefits, including state pension.

Entitlement to some state benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Maternity Allowance depend on the amount of National Insurance contributions paid in the years leading up to the claim, and these are known as contributory benefits. Other benefits which are not dependent on the National Insurance contributions record when a claim is made are called non-contributory benefits.

There is more information on National Insurance contributions generally on the LITRG website.