why do we pay national insurance in the uk
National Insurance In the United Kingdom, National Insurance (NI) is a system of taxes paid by workers and employers, used primarily to fund state benefits. It was initially a contributory system of insurance against illness and unemployment, and later also provided retirement pensions and other benefits.[1] It was first introduced by the National Insurance Act 1911 and expanded by the Labour government in 1948, and has been subject to numerous amendments in subsequent years.
History of insurance In some sense, we can say that insurance dates back to early human society. We know of two types of economies in human societies: natural or non-monetary economies (using barter and trade with no centralized nor standardized set of financial instruments) and monetary economies (with markets, currency, financial instruments and so on). Insurance in the former case entails agreements of mutual aid. If one family's house gets destroyed, the neighbours are committed to help rebuild it. Granaries embodied another early form of insurance to indemnify against famines. These types of insurance have survived to the present day in countries or areas where a modern money economy with its financial instruments is not widespread.[citation needed]