The National Insurance Scheme has for some time now been providing insured persons with a record of their contributions to the scheme. There have also always been queries regarding the number of contributions recorded for certain years. At first, this record was manually extracted and recorded from the "Wage-Group" period (September 1969 - April 1989) and the "Payroll" period (May 1989 onwards).
It must be remembered that the payment of contributions commenced from 29th September, 1969. At the commencement of the the Scheme, all contributions were divided into two groups. One group had National Insurance numbers beginning with the letter "A" and the other group had National Insurance numbers beginning with the letter "B". Those National Insurance numbers were derived from contributors' National Identification numbers.
Those contributors who had no National Identification numbers were allotted temporary numbers which were numbers prefixed by the letter "B" and had the first digit on the number as a "9".
The reason for the division of the contributors into two groups was to facilitate the easy exchange of the contribution cards.
The contributors that were recorded in the early years of the scheme related to periods which overlapped successive years eg. 1969/1970, 1970/1971, 1971/1972 etc.
In the early years therefore the contribution year was different from the calendar year.
The "Wage Group" Period:
For the period 1969 to 1975, all contributions were paid to the scheme through the purchase of special insurance stamps which were then affixed to contribution cards assigned to each insured person. From 1976 to 1980, contributions were paid partly by cash or cheque directly to the National Insurance offices and partly through the purchase of insurance stamps. Thereafter, the Adhesive Stamping System was replaced by the Direct Payment System.
The contribution record therefore would reflect these adjustments in the following manner:
1. Year 1969: For insured persons with N.I.S. numbers beginning with the letter A, the maximum number of contributions which could be awarded is 27 since the period of the first card range from 29th September, 1969, to 5th April, 1970. Thereafter the contribution year was from April to March ie. a full fifty-two (52) weeks.
For insured persons with N.I.S. numbers beginning with the letter "B", the maximum number of contributions which could be awarded is 53 since the period of that first contribution card ranged from 29th September, 1969, to 4th October, 1970.
2. Year 1976: The Adhesive Stamping System was abolished with respect to Government Ministries with N.I.S. numbers beginning with the letter "A", the maximum number of contributions which could be awarded is 39, since that would have completed the calendar year 1976. The 39 contributions covered the period April 1976 to December 1976.
For insured persons within the Government Ministries with N.I.S. numbers beginning with the letter "B", the maximum number of contributions which could be awarded is 13, since that would have completed the calendar year 1976. The 13 contributions therefore covered the period October 1976 to December 1976.
Subsequent to contribution years for insured persons within the Government Ministries coincided with the calendar years.
3. Year 1980: All other entities changed to the Direct Payment System.
For those insured persons with N.I.S. numbers beginning with the letter "B", the maximum number of contributions which could be awarded is 39, since that would have completed the calendar year1980. The 39 contributions covered the period October to December 1980.
Subsequent contribution years for all insured persons coincided with the calendar years.
Year 1989: In April 1989, the "Wage-Group" period ended.
The maximum number of contributions which could be awarded to any insured person to close the year under the Wage-Group System is 17, covering the period January 1989 to April 1989.
B. The "Schedule Payment" Period:
From May 1989, contributions were paid on actual earnings of insured persons up to a given ceiling and recorded on contribution schedules.
YEAR 1989: The maximum number of contributions which could be awarded to any insured person under this new system for this year is 35, covering the period May 1989 to December 1989.
Subsequent contribution years coincided with the calendar years.
