"These two schemes were merged into one in 1948 to support the welfare state and the NHS."
That is incorrect. From 1948 to 2003 NI was purely a Social Security Tax. It was only when 1% (later 2%) was added to the deduction rates for Classes 1, 1A and 4 that the additional revenue from those increases was diverted to NHS funding. From 1948 to 2003 the NHS was entirely funded from general taxation and for the most part it still is.
NI effectively is hypothecated because NI receipts (apart from the small fraction diverted towards NHS funding) goes into the National Insurance Fund which pays for the State Pension, Contributory Benefits and some other things. The accounts of the NIF are published annually.
This appears an eminently sensible decision. Employment law is crystal clear that payslips must be provided at or before the time a person is paid (section 8(1) Employment Rights Act 1996). Unless there's clear evidence such as tax records (these days that includes RTI data) which shows they are correct it's reasonable to doubt the veracity of any payslips produced retrospectively.
One solution that no politicians appear to want to consider would be to make employment status have no consequences for tax liability. In other words everyone would pay tax on the same basis regardless of whether they are employed or self-employed. Such a change would immediately make IR35 pointless and also eliminate all the time wasted in determining and disputing employment status for tax purposes.
That way employment status would only matter for employment law purposes (where the classifications are different from employment status under tax law in any case).
It appears that they have introduced new ID requirements for using Government Gateway.
A few years ago (at least 4 but no more than 6) when I was working for Citizens Advice we occasionally helped people with SA tax returns - often after they had been notified of a late filing penalty. In those cases we advised them to file their return online as the penalties would have been higher if they sent in a paper return. I do not remember needing any formal ID documents to set up the Government Gateway access - they just had to wait a few days to receive the access code in the post and once that was received the online tax return could be completed.
Verify has always been a complete mess. For many years I worked for Citizens Advice and we helped people with Universal Credit claims. When claiming you could use Verify to prove your identity rather than visiting the Jobcentre with documents but we found it was so difficult to use successfully that we advised everyone not to even bother trying.
The problems appear to have occurred because in some weeks (or months) the pay from both jobs fell below the lower earnings limit - currently £120 a week.
Sometimes having multiple jobs can be financially beneficial because if pay is between the lower earnings limit and primary threshold (£184 a week - for the employee) or secondary threshold (£170 a week - for the employer) that's recorded as having made NI contributions for the week (or month) even though the contribution rate is 0%.
It is possible that state pension entitlement could be reduced although only 35 years in the contribution record is required to avoid that. It would be sensible to obtain a pension statement to check the situation but if there's likely to be a shortfall it can be avoided by paying Class 3 (voluntary) NI contributions. The catch is they are rather expensive - currently £15.40 a week.
Sections 43-55 of this Act deal with the pre-2016 retirement pension and the 60% pension is called a "Category B retirement pension". Section 48BAA deals with a divorcee or former civil partner and sections 48B and 51 deal with widows, widowers and surviving civil partners.
There are many situations where people work for multiple employers as employees - typically doing several part-time jobs. From both an employment law and a tax law viewpoint (which are different) it would make no sense whatsoever for them to be considered as self-employed (or alternatively a worker in employment law).
My answers
"These two schemes were merged into one in 1948 to support the welfare state and the NHS."
That is incorrect. From 1948 to 2003 NI was purely a Social Security Tax. It was only when 1% (later 2%) was added to the deduction rates for Classes 1, 1A and 4 that the additional revenue from those increases was diverted to NHS funding. From 1948 to 2003 the NHS was entirely funded from general taxation and for the most part it still is.
NI effectively is hypothecated because NI receipts (apart from the small fraction diverted towards NHS funding) goes into the National Insurance Fund which pays for the State Pension, Contributory Benefits and some other things. The accounts of the NIF are published annually.
I'm a retired employment lawyer.
This appears an eminently sensible decision. Employment law is crystal clear that payslips must be provided at or before the time a person is paid (section 8(1) Employment Rights Act 1996). Unless there's clear evidence such as tax records (these days that includes RTI data) which shows they are correct it's reasonable to doubt the veracity of any payslips produced retrospectively.
One solution that no politicians appear to want to consider would be to make employment status have no consequences for tax liability. In other words everyone would pay tax on the same basis regardless of whether they are employed or self-employed. Such a change would immediately make IR35 pointless and also eliminate all the time wasted in determining and disputing employment status for tax purposes.
That way employment status would only matter for employment law purposes (where the classifications are different from employment status under tax law in any case).
It appears that they have introduced new ID requirements for using Government Gateway.
A few years ago (at least 4 but no more than 6) when I was working for Citizens Advice we occasionally helped people with SA tax returns - often after they had been notified of a late filing penalty. In those cases we advised them to file their return online as the penalties would have been higher if they sent in a paper return. I do not remember needing any formal ID documents to set up the Government Gateway access - they just had to wait a few days to receive the access code in the post and once that was received the online tax return could be completed.
Verify has always been a complete mess. For many years I worked for Citizens Advice and we helped people with Universal Credit claims. When claiming you could use Verify to prove your identity rather than visiting the Jobcentre with documents but we found it was so difficult to use successfully that we advised everyone not to even bother trying.
The problems appear to have occurred because in some weeks (or months) the pay from both jobs fell below the lower earnings limit - currently £120 a week.
Sometimes having multiple jobs can be financially beneficial because if pay is between the lower earnings limit and primary threshold (£184 a week - for the employee) or secondary threshold (£170 a week - for the employer) that's recorded as having made NI contributions for the week (or month) even though the contribution rate is 0%.
It is possible that state pension entitlement could be reduced although only 35 years in the contribution record is required to avoid that. It would be sensible to obtain a pension statement to check the situation but if there's likely to be a shortfall it can be avoided by paying Class 3 (voluntary) NI contributions. The catch is they are rather expensive - currently £15.40 a week.
I believe it's all in the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/4/pdfs/ukpga_19920004_310320_e...
Sections 43-55 of this Act deal with the pre-2016 retirement pension and the 60% pension is called a "Category B retirement pension". Section 48BAA deals with a divorcee or former civil partner and sections 48B and 51 deal with widows, widowers and surviving civil partners.
There are many situations where people work for multiple employers as employees - typically doing several part-time jobs. From both an employment law and a tax law viewpoint (which are different) it would make no sense whatsoever for them to be considered as self-employed (or alternatively a worker in employment law).