Social Security Benefits

Under the United Kingdom social security scheme, payments made to individuals in cash (as distinguished from services such as medical, educational, dental, etc.) are called 'benefits'. There are three general classes of benefit:

(a) those that can be paid only if the required national insurance contributions have been paid (national insurance benefits);

(b) those that all persons who fulfil the required conditions are entitled to receive, irrespective of national insurance contributions and irrespective of what other means they may have (non-contributory benefits);

(c) those that are dependent on what other money the claimant has coming in and which are not dependent on national insurance contributions (means-tested benefits)

The main benefits are listed in the following table, grouped not according to class but according to the circumstances in which they may be claimed. The list is not exhaustive; benefits likely to be of interest to only a small minority (e.g. Guardian's Allowance) have been omitted. To obtain a more precise account of all benefits available you should refer in the first instance to leaflet FB 2 (Which Benefit? 60 Ways to get Cash Help) and to the leaflet NP 12 (Social Security : School-leavers and Students), available from the local social security office or from the Department of Health and Social Security at Alexander Fleming House, Elephant and Castle, London SE1.

In the second column of the table the following abbreviations have been used to indicate the class of benefit:

NI = national insurance benefit; NC = non-contributory benefit; MT = means-tested benefit.

The weekly amounts for each benefit quoted in the table are those applying from November 2000. An additional blank column has been provided to enable a reader to insert, after November 2001, the then current figures from an up-to-date copy of leaflet NI 196 Social Security Benefit Rates obtainable from the local social security office or from the Department of Health and Social Security.

• Balance Sheet Exercises
• Contributions From Employer