National Insurance Act 1946
Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
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Through Clement Attlee
The act meant that all who were of working age were to pay a weekly contribution. If they had been paying National Insurance, mothers were to be entitled to an allowance (of 18 weeks) for each child as well as a lump sum when the child was born. The act however excluded married women. The weekly contributions meant that benefits including sickness benefit and unemployment benefits were able to be offered. Pensions were to be offered to men and women at ages 65 and 60 respectively.
Background
Attlee had campaigned hard in his campaign leading up to the 1945 election for the creation of the welfare state. When elected, he and his administration adopted proposals of the Beveridge Report of 1942 to keep to his manifesto promise.
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Significance
According to the historian Kenneth O. Morgan, the act constituted "a measure which provided a comprehensive universal basis for insurance provision that had hitherto been unknown".
Subsequent developments
The whole act except sections 6(4), 55, 68, 70, 74 and 79 and schedule 11, section 70 so far as it applies to Great Britain, and in section 79, paragraphs (a) to (i) and (k), were repealed by section 1(1) of, and the schedule to, the Statute Law Revision (Consequential Repeals) Act 1965, which came into force on 6 September 1965.
The whole act, so far as unrepealed, was repealed by section 100(2)(b) of, and part I of schedule 28 to, the Social Security Act 1973, which came into force on 6 April 1975.