Background to the Act Administration of National Insurance contributions and Statutory SickPay and Statutory Maternity Pay Aligning the periods of notice required for distraint action in England and Wales and application for summary warrant in Scotland to recover contribution debt and aligning distraint procedures in Northern Ireland with those which apply in England and Wales
17.The measures at sections 5 and 6 apply to the 3% of contributions which are currently not collected with tax and to which separate processes apply. The purpose of the changes is to allow the Inland Revenue to align the collection and administration of the contributions, so far as is practicable, with the collection of tax in order to allow the Department to deal with a person’s tax and National Insurance affairs in one transaction. The contributions in questions are mainly Class 2 contributions paid on a monthly or quarterly basis by the self-employed. However, misalignments with tax provisions also arise in relation to Class 1A contributions (paid by employers on certain benefits received by their employees) and some Class 4 contributions.