Restitution
front page

What's new?

Archive front page

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2007

2006

2008

2009

Governmental Respect for the Rule of Law

Subscribers may not have seen this story under the name of George Parker, Political Correspondent,in the Financial Times on 31 December 1997. Actors and musicians have been incorrectly charged Class 1 National Insurance Contributions for six years. 38,000 actors and 34,000 musicians are now entitled to restitution of some 400 million pounds (c.5,500 per person if all were equally entitled). The F T says that Harriet Harman, the social security secretary, in her determination to cut the welfare bill, has been exploring ways of not making this refund. She had hoped to give herself power to withhold it by inserting a clause in the new Social Security Bill. A leaked letter from Minister Harman to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, says that she has had to step back from this plan. Her letter is reported as saying, 'Legal advice is that this cannot be achieved without contravening the European Convention on Human Rights.' It seems that she will now make the refund and will lawfully redistribute the burden by freezing thresholds for employers' NI contributions across the board. Her reforms will also reduce benefits to actors and musicians resting between jobs.

Peter Birks
Regius Professor of Civil Law
University of Oxford

Work 01865 279338 fax 279299
All Souls, Oxford, OX1 4 AL

Home 01865 735625
Oak Trees, Sandy Lane, Boars Hill OX1 5HN