PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
State Retirement Pensions: Females (6 January 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to stop national insurance contributions made by women who have not yet reached state pension age, but were born before 1960 and had already fully contributed under the state pension scheme in place before 2016.

Asked by:
Charlotte Nichols (Labour)

We have no plans to change the longstanding National Insurance arrangements.

The National Insurance scheme operates on a 'pay-as-you-go' basis meaning that today’s contributors are paying for today’s Social Security entitlements and pensions, while those who paid contributions in the past were paying for the pensioners of that time. The National Insurance contributions people make not only go towards the State Pension, but also entitle them to a range of contributory Social Security benefits and bereavement benefits. A proportion of National Insurance contributions also goes towards funding the NHS (around 20 per cent of receipts).

Answered by:
Guy Opperman (Conservative)
13 January 2021