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	Statutes of Northern Ireland
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NATIONAL INSURANCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1966

NATIONAL INSURANCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1966 - LONG TITLE

An Act to consolidate the National Insurance Acts (Northern Ireland)
1946 to 1964, certain provisions made by regulations thereunder and
certain related enactments.
[24th March 1966]
Certain provisions of this Act were repealed by the Social Security
Act 1973 (c.38) and subsequently the Act was completely repealed by
the Social Security (Consequential Provisions) Act 1975 (c.18).
Provision was made, however, to continue in force by regulations
such of the repealed provisions as were required to preserve rights
to benefit or to retain their effect for transitional purposes.

The provisions listed below have been continued in force by the
statutory rules indicated. Those listed immediately below are not
printed in full as they have a very limited application

(F)(ii)

Sections 35 and 36 (relating to graduated pensions) are continued in
force in modified form together with section 110(1) (short title) by
the Social Security (Graduated Retirement Benefit) (No. 2) Regs. (NI)
1978 (SR 1978/105) and, as these sections affect a considerable
number of persons, they are set out in full.

Graduated retirement benefit.

NATIONAL INSURANCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1966 - SECT 35

35.(1) Subject to the provisions of the Act, graduated retirement
benefit shall be payable to any person who is over pensionable age
and who (except as mentioned in section 36(1) below) has retired
from regular employment, and shall be an increase in the weekly
rate of his retirement pension equal to [3.54] pence for each unit,
ascertained in accordance with subsections (2) and (3) of this
section, of the graduated contributions properly paid by him as an
insured person, the result being rounded to the nearest whole penny,
taking p as nearest to the next whole penny above.

(2) For the purpose of graduated retirement benefit the units of
graduated contributions shall be #7.50 for men and #9.00 for women.

(3) Where a person's graduated contributions calculated at the said
rate do not make an exact number of units any incomplete fraction
of a unit shall, if it is one-half or more, be treated as a
complete unit.

(4) Where a person defers his retirement from regular employment
after attaining pensionable age or has made an election by virtue
of section 30(3) of the Act and has not revoked it, then, for the
purpose of calculating the graduated retirement benefit payable to
him from the date of his retirement, there shall be applied the
provisions of Schedule 2 to the Social Security (Graduated Retirement
Benefit) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1978, and those
provisions shall be construed and have effect as if they were part
of this subsection.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (4) of this section, the
Department may by regulations provide for treating all or any of
the graduated contributions paid by a person in the tax year in
which he attained pensionable age as having been paid before, or as
having been paid after, the day on which he attained that age,
whether or not the contribution in question was so paid.

(7) A person who has attained pensionable age and retired from
regular employment, but is not entitled to a retirement pension,
shall be treated for the purposes of the foregoing provisions of
this section as receiving a retirement pension at a nominal weekly
rate:

Provided that

(a)this subsection shall not confer any right to graduated retirement
benefit on a person who would be entitled to a retirement pension
but for some provision of the Act or of regulations disqualifying
him for receipt of it; and

(b)regulations may provide that any right by virtue of this
subsection to benefit at less than a specified weekly rate shall be
satisfied either altogether or for a specified period by the making
of a single payment of the prescribed amount.

(8) In this section and in section 36 below

"graduated contributions" means graduated contributions under the Act
of 1966 or the National Insurance Act (Northern Ireland) 1959;

"insured person" means insured person under the Act of 1966 or the
National Insurance Act (Northern Ireland) 1946;

"retirement pension" means retirement pension of any category;

"the Act" means the Social Security (Northern Ireland) Act 1975;

(9) This section and section 36 below and the Act shall be
construed and have effect as if this section and section 36 below
were included in Chapter I of Part II of that Act (contributory
benefits); and references to that Chapter, that Part or that Act in
any other enactment or in any instrument shall be construed
accordingly:

Provided that nothing in this subsection shall affect the
construction of any reference to section 35 or 36 of this Act or
of that Act or to any of the subsections of those sections; and
any increase in the weekly rate of a person's retirement pension,
to the extent that it is attributable to subsection (4) of this
section, shall be left out of account in determining the weekly
rate of that pension for the purposes of sections 14(6) and 15(4)
of the Act (rate of unemployment benefit, sickness benefit or
invalidity pension for persons over pensionable age).

(10) The provisions of Part III of the Act (determination of claims
and questions) relating to contributions shall be construed and have
effect as if graduated contributions were contributions under the
Act.

NATIONAL INSURANCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1966 - SECT 36
Special provisions as to graduated retirement benefit for widows and
widowers.

36.(1) Subject to the provisions of this section

(a)where a man, having paid graduated contributions as an insured
person, dies leaving a widow, and she either has attained
pensionable age at the time of his death or remains his widow when
she attains that age; or

(b)where a woman, having paid graduated contributions as an insured
person, dies after 5th April 1979 leaving a widower, and she and
he have both attained pensionable age at the time of her death,

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, the weekly
rate of the deceased spouse's graduated retirement benefit shall
(whether or not he or she was receiving or entitled to receive any
such benefit) be taken to have been the weekly rate appropriate to
the amount of graduated contributions paid by him or her (determined
as if any orders which have come into force under section 120 of
the Act (increases in rates of benefit) since the date of the
deceased spouse's death had come into force before that date),
excluding any addition under section 36(1) of this Act, but
including any addition under section 35(4) thereof (and for the
purpose of calculating the addition under section 35(4), taking into
account any addition under section 36(1)); and where at his or her
death he or she had attained pensionable age but had neither
retired from regular employment nor otherwise become entitled to
graduated retirement benefit, that addition shall be computed as if
he or she had retired from regular employment or otherwise become
entitled to graduated retirement benefit immediately before his or
her death.

(3) A person's right to graduated retirement benefit by virtue of
this section shall be brought into account under section 35(4) of
this Act in determining the graduated retirement benefit payable to
him or her under the said section 35:

Provided that, if the termination of the marriage by death occurred
after he or she attained pensionable age, he or she shall for the
purposes of this subsection be treated as not having attained
pensionable age until the date of that termination.

(4) A person's right to graduated retirement benefit by virtue of
this section in respect of a spouse he or she marries after
attaining pensionable age shall be subject to such additional
conditions as may be prescribed; and except as may be provided by
regulations a person more than once married shall not be entitled
for the same period to any graduated retirement benefit by virtue
of this section in respect of more than one of his or her
spouses.

(5) Regulations may provide that where a woman is entitled to
graduated retirement benefit and to a widowed mother's allowance the
graduated retirement benefit shall be an increase in the weekly rate
of that allowance; and where the benefit is such an increase,
section 35(7) of this Act shall not apply.

NATIONAL INSURANCE ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1966 - SECT 110
Short title.

110.(1) This Act may be cited as the National Insurance Act
(Northern Ireland) 1966.

1. Where a person defers his retirement from regular employment
after attaining pensionable age, or has made an election by virtue
of section 30(3) of the Act and has not revoked it, then for the
purpose of calculating the graduated retirement benefit payable to
him from the date of his retirement

(a)there shall be added to the amount of the graduated contributions
properly paid by him as an insured person one-half of the aggregate
graduated retirement benefit which would have been payable to him
for any period before 6th April 1979 (disregarding the effect of
any order made under section 120 of the Act) if he had retired
from regular employment on attaining pensionable age and had received
that benefit for the whole of the period without any interruption
or abatement:

Provided that, in computing the addition to be made in accordance
with this paragraph in the case of a person who has made an
election by virtue of section 30(3) of the Act (re-entry into
regular employment) or the corresponding provisions of any earlier
Act, no account shall be taken of any period between 6th April
1975 and 5th April 1979 (both dates inclusive) which falls between
the date of that election and the date of his previous retirement;
and

(b)the rate of his graduated retirement benefit shall be increased
by an amount equal to the increments to which he is entitled under
paragraph 3 below, but only if either

(i)that amount is enough to increase the rate of the benefit by at
least 1 per cent., or

(ii)he has attained pensionable age before 6th April 1979, and has
either deferred his retirement before that date, or made an election
by virtue of section 30(3) of the Act taking effect before that
date or both.

2. Where a woman who is over pensionable age but has not retired
from regular employment is entitled by virtue of section 36(1) of
the Act of 1966 to graduated retirement benefit, and she has, on
or after 6th April 1979, made an election by virtue of section
30(3) of the Act and has not revoked it, then, for the purpose
only of determining her right to increments under this Schedule, her
election shall be treated as if it took effect from 6th April
1979, or, if later, the date of the death of her husband by
virtue of whose graduated contributions she is so entitled.

3.(1) Subject to paragraph 4 below, a person is entitled to an
increment under this paragraph for each complete incremental period
(beginning not earlier than 6th April 1979) in his period of
deferment.

(2) In this Schedule

(a)"incremental period" means any period of 6 days which are treated
by the Social Security (Widow's Benefit and Retirement Pensions)
(Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1978 as days of increment
for the purposes of Schedule 1 to the Pensions Order as amended by
Article 4 of the Social Security (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Northern
Ireland) Order 1977 in relation to the person and the pension in
question; and

(b)"period of deferment", in relation to any person, means the
period beginning with the day on which he attains pensionable age
and ending with the day before that of his retirement.

(3) Subject to paragraph 4 below, the amount of the increment for
any such incremental period shall be 1/7th per cent. of the weekly
rate of the graduated retirement benefit to which that person would
have been entitled for the period if he had retired on attaining
pensionable age, the result being rounded to the nearest whole
penny, taking p as nearest to the next whole penny above.

(4) Where one or more orders have come into force under section
120 of the Act (increases in rates of benefit) during the period
of deferment the rate of the benefit for any incremental period
shall be determined as if the order or orders had come into force
before the beginning of the period of deferment.

4.(1) Where during a person's period of deferment there are one or
more increases (other than any made by such an order as is
mentioned in paragraph 3(4) above) in the weekly rate of graduated
retirement benefit which would have been payable to him during that
period if he had not deferred his retirement from regular employment
or made an election by virtue of section 30(3) of the Act, the
total amount of increment for the period of deferment shall be

(a)1/7th per cent., for each incremental period in the period of
deferment, of the weekly rate of the graduated retirement benefit to
which he would have been entitled immediately after his retirement
if he had retired on attaining pensionable age; plus

(b)in respect of each such increase, 1/7th per cent. of its weekly
rate for each incremental period in the period beginning with the
day on which that increase occurred and ending with the day before
that of the person's retirement.

(2) Where one or more orders have come into force under section
120 of the Act during the period of deferment the weekly rates
mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) above shall be determined as if the
order or orders had come into force before the beginning of the
period of deferment.