National Insurance Act 1965

56 Non-participating employments.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, an employed contributor's employment shall, in relation to any person employed in it who is over the age of eighteen and under pensionable age, be a non-participating employment for any period during which—

(a) his service in it, subject to paragraph 12 of Schedule 11 to this Act, is service qualifying him under a recognised superannuation scheme for retirement benefits by way of pension which are on the whole as favourable as the right to benefit to be derived from graduated contributions (in this Act referred to as " equivalent pension benefits "); and

(b) there is in force a certificate issued under this section to the employer that the employment is to be treated as a non-participating employment;

and an employment which is a non-participating employment in relation to a person employed in it immediately before he attains pensionable age shall, if the conditions of this Part of this Act other than paragraph (a) of this subsection are satisfied, continue to be a non-participating employment in relation to him so long as he continues to be employed in it and has not retired from regular employment.

(2) Where a person is in the same contribution week employed both in a non-participating employment and in another employed contributor's employment, then unless provision to the contrary is made by regulations, any contribution payable by or in respect of him for that week under section 3 of this Act shall be payable at the rate appropriate to a non-participating employment.

(3) Subject to paragraph 13 of Schedule 11 to this Act, where a person is in any income tax year employed both in a non-participating employment and in another employed contributor's employment, then any question as to the amount (if any) by which the graduated contributions paid by him in respect of remuneration paid in that year exceed the amount prescribed under section 4(4) of this Act shall be determined as if (in addition to those contributions) on the first day of any contribution week in which he was employed in a non-participating employment he had paid a graduated contribution in respect of a weekly payment of remuneration of eighteen pounds made on that day:

Provided that if he is treated under section 58 of this Act as having on any such day paid a graduated contribution or part of one, this subsection shall treat him as paying on that day only such contribution (if any) as is necessary in order to make up the amount he is treated as having paid to that of such a graduated contribution as aforesaid.

(4) For the purpose of determining liability to graduated contributions, an employment shall be deemed to be a non-participating employment in relation to a person previously (but no longer) employed in it if—

(a) it was a non-participating employment in relation to him when he was last employed in it; or

(b) he ceased to be employed in it on or before attaining the age of eighteen, and on attaining that age was employed in a non-participating employment under the same employer in place of it.

(5) Regulations shall provide for the issue to employers of certificates specifying the employments which are to be treated either generally or in relation to any description of persons specified in the certificate as non-participating employments, and for the cancellation, variation or surrender of any certificate or issue of an amended certificate on any change of circumstances affecting the treatment of an employment as a non-participating employment, and (subject to the exclusion by subsection (1) of this section of persons under the age of eighteen or over pensionable age) any such certificate for the time being in force shall be conclusive that the employments included in it are non-participating employments:

Provided that—

(a) except in such circumstances as may be prescribed, no such certificate or cancellation, surrender or variation of such a certificate shall have effect from a date earlier than the beginning of the contribution week following that in which it is issued or made ; and

(b) subject to the provisions of this Act, an employment otherwise satisfying the conditions for inclusion in such a certificate shall be so included if and so long as the employer so elects, and not otherwise.