Just a general point I would like to make,

I am an agency worker effectively on a zero hour contract, its what I choose as it fits in well with my lifestyle and commitments.

Anyway I earned £10600 last year and paid 622 in NI on the salary calculator it says I should only have paid 304, but because my wages differ each week I feel I am being penalised as those who are on a salary are paying less than me, this really annoys me, its not like I earn a great deal.

This year I have earned up till now 13k and paid 1100 in national insurance so far!! when calculated on a salary I should only be paying 592.

Where is the fairness in this system, not only have I already paid this year over 600 extra in taxes, )I know I will get this back at the end of the tax year) but they are taking my student loan out which so far adds up too 400 quid, even though I should not be paying that back until I earn over 17K,

All this money taken out of my pocket, which as a carer is causing me hardship, and all because my work reduces and increases all year round. Its no wonder some people choose the benefit system.

Rant over I just thought I would add to the pitfalls of zero hour contracts.

Have you made any sort of appeal about this?

Your M.P. for example or HMRC.

I have been researching it over the past few days even phoned NI who did not have a clue what I was trying to say, thought I may be able to get a refund at the end of the year but apparently I cannot,

TBH I dont know what else to do

https://www.gov.uk/claim-tax-refund

Thats for tax refunds, the OP was talking about NI contributions.

As you did not say what NI calculator you used or what assumptions you made it is hard to comment.

However one such site I looked at gave the disclaimer

There are also a wide range of different allowances in relation to National Insurance for different types of workers

so that is two things for you to investigate to start with. Oh and your employer should be able to explain your deductions and why they were made, have you asked them?

NI is non cumulative, ulike tax. so the NI deducted depends on what you were paid in the particular run. if you go for periods not being paid, you don't accumulate any unused allowance. tax is different as you have an allowance for the whole year and it's cumulative whereas NI allowances are for the week/month/fortnight/etc the pay period covers and nothing else

the same rules apply to everyone exception company directors. it makes no different if you are on a zero hours contract or not

Get yourself down to your nearest Citizen's Advice Bureau or Workers Rights Office with your payslips as soon as you can. I have feeling you are paying far too much.

its the weekly pay that is costing me more because I dont work every week, soI may earn 400 in one week but then nothing over the next 2

The threshold for NICs this tax year is £155 a week, below that you pay nothing, on any earnings above that up to a threshold of £827 you pay 12% and 2% on any earnings above £827. You can't compare NICs for a regular wage paid each week/month with NICs for irregular earnings such as a zero hours contract even if overall earnings for the year are the same.

You can only claim NI deductions back if they were incorrect.

if you are paid weekly then if you are paid £400 gross, you pay the relevant NI for those earnings

if you have no pay then you pay no NI

if you are paid under the threshold you pay no NI


if you are paid fortnightly but only do one weeks hours, you get 2 weeks NI allowance, so you effectively benefit from paying less NI. likewise if you are paid monthly or 4 weeksly but only work a week or two, you get the 4 weeks or months NI allowance even though you've not worked that much. so you would actually benefit in that situation

basically you aren't losing out at all

Of course I am losing out, I am losing out by paying more than those who are on a salary earning the same and paying half as much as I do, so basically leaves me with less disposable income. There is no fairness in that situation

If you earn £400 one week and nothing the next, assuming you are paid weekly, you would be £18.60 worse off than if you earned £200 each week for 2 weeks.

no you aren't

with the exception of company directors which have different NI rules, anyone regardless of the type of contract they have, will pay the same NI than any other person if paid the same amount of money in the same pay period

HRMC have an employees helpline. give them a call and they can explain it to you. they will confirm i'm right as unfortunately i'm an expert in things like taxes and can bore anyone to tears explaining it in detail

you can then ask your payroll/HR department to explain and they will confirm the same

you aren't comparing like for like by comparing the total earnings for the year as NI is based on the pay for a specific period

In effect you are both correct.

It is an effect of the way NI is calculated and collected that someone on a zero hours contract paid weekly who earns £300 in one week and nothing in the next week will pay more NI than someone who gets paid fortnightly and does the same hours.

NICs are based on a weekly income, the number of hours worked in a week doesn't impact that weekly calculation other than by how much you get paid per hour worked in that week. The number of weeks you work over a fortnight, a month or a year doesn't impact it either.

So if someone gets paid weekly and earns £200 one week and nothing the next and another person gets paid fortnightly gets £200 one week and nothing the next who pays most National Insurance?

If you saying they both earned the same in one week and neither earned anything in the second week their NICs are the same.

Doesn't work like that.

On a payroll system (assuming it is hourly) you enter how many hours were worked in the given pay period. It then, in effect, averages it out over that pay period.

If you are paid weekly and earn more than £155 pw in any week you pay NI

If you are paid monthly and earn more than £672 pm in any month you pay NI

So even if you only work one week of a year and earn £156 you will still pay NI whilst someone who works 52 weeks and earns £154 a week will pay nothing

Exactly - slight edit for clarity

No problem

It does for the simple reason NICs are calculated on a weekly basis not fortnightly or monthly or annually. If it worked how you suggest then the OP wouldn't be complaining.

Of course it works like that.

If you are paid at the end of each week and earn over £155 in that week you will pay National Insurance. If you earn nothing the week before you can't "average" the NI in the same way it does with Income Tax.

If you are paid at the end of the month and (for example) work a shift pattern that means you work 5 days in one week and 2 days in the next week but earn an average of £154 a week then you will pay no National Insurance.

NIC is calculated over the pay period. It is only calculated weekly if you are paid weekly.
The main difference to income tax is that it is non- cumulative, whereas income tax is cumulative.