Having had a look at the National Pensioners Convention website I found a press release that tells us more about the supposed National Insurance Fund surplus mentioned elsewhere on the site.
Find them here:
http://www.npcuk.org/index.htmlHere is the press release verbatim:
Politicians are misleading the public over National InsuranceBritain’s biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), has criticised the three main political parties for misleading the public over the purpose of National Insurance.
Gordon Brown has claimed that the payments will be used for schools and police, whilst David Cameron has dubbed NI a tax on jobs. The NPC claims that neither are correct.
NPC research has revealed that for a number of years, politicians of all shades have been denying the very existence of the National Insurance Fund. Some claim it is simply an accounting tool; a notional fund that bears no relation to improving the state pension.
But the National Insurance scheme was established on 5 July 1948 to provide unemployment benefit, sickness benefit, retirement pensions and other benefits where individuals meet the contribution and other qualifying conditions, such as the annual Christmas Bonus.
In principle, the National Insurance Fund operates on a pay-as-you-go basis, the contributions received in each year being used to pay pensions and other benefits in the same year. In this respect it differs fundamentally from private pension funds, which need to build up reserves to cover their future liabilities.
The Government Actuary, who reports on the state of the Fund each year, also recommends that the Fund should also keep a balance to cover any unexpected short-fall in income of not less than two months’ benefit expenditure.
Currently, the Government Actuary reports that the Fund has a surplus balance of
£54bn, which is expected to rise to
£102bn in just a few years.
Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary said: “All the main political parties are misleading the public over the issue of National Insurance. NI is primarily collected to pay for pensions and contributory benefits. Only a very small proportion goes to the NHS and none of it is meant to be for education or the police. Pensioners are therefore understandably concerned that NI is being spent on everything but decent state pensions. The public need to know the truth about NI and none of the politicians are being honest about it. Raising NI would be popular if it was going to pay for higher state pensions rather than being used as a political football.”
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WELL...what do you guys n' gals think of THAT then ?
