Hi, everyone and welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】Hi 安澜.

Hi, Lulu. Hi, everyone.

And then the unemployment what you call it the Dole.

Yeah in spoken English we will call it the Dole. But if you actually see it in governments, notice it is called jobseekers’ allowance.

Jobseekers’ allowance, I like the positivity instead of unemployment allowance.

Yeah, the idea is that you only getting that money because you're looking for a job as opposed to live in unemployment benefit.

I see, I see. So, you pay one contribution into national insurance, and that covers medical, that covers maternity, that covers pension, and that also covers unemployment.

So, it pretty much covers everything. And this was first introduced in 1911. So it's been around for a very long time and it's paid by everybody who is earning over?242 a week.

A week. Okay, so that's roughly about ?1,000 a month then over that. But I suppose it's roughly the same - is the equivalent as the personal allowance threshold, the tax threshold like?12,000.

Yeah, and this is something you start paying at the age of 16.

So even when I was doing part-time jobs, I probably wouldn't have paid income tax, but I would still have to pay national insurance contributions.

Do you have to pay the same amount of national insurance, no matter how much money you make?

No, it still has its own brackets. So it's 12% of your weekly earnings between?242 and ?967. And it's then 2% of your weekly earnings above?967.

I see. So you have again the brackets for people with different levels of income.

Yeah. And everybody in the UK, every British citizen and people who are working in the UK are given a national insurance number.

This is how you pay into and also access national insurance.

Yeah, yeah. So every time I fill out tax return or I fill out any paperworks, I have to add my national insurance number.

I see. When you go to the doctors, is that also the one that you show?

No, you don't have to show it. There's another number, an NHS number to access medical, national insurance is basically a way of calculating how much you've paid.

So, for example, I've lived in China for many years now. What I do is I pay voluntary contributions.

Voluntary means they don't force you to do it, but you choose to do it.

I choose to do it, because this is important to get a state pension.

So, let me get this straight. So, if you are a British person, a British national living overseas, working overseas, you don't have to pay national insurance in the UK.

No.

But if you don't, then you won't get the state pension.

Exactly. So both men and women at the moment, they get their pension at 66.

66. Wow.

66, yeah. It's probably gonna go up very, very soon. And what you have to do is you have to pay for 35 years in order to get the full amount.

35 years. I think this is much longer than in China.

Yeah. Now the good thing is that paying voluntary contributions is not really that expensive. It's only about ?700 or ?800 a year.

?800 a year really, that doesn't sound too bad, but how much do you collect in state pension?

The current full state pension is ?203.85.

For what?

A week.

A week. Ok. So, a month that would be a bit over 800 pounds.

Yes.

所以他们的相当于国民养老金差不多是800磅一个月. This is what everybody gets?

Everybody gets.

If you pay for 35 years?

Yes.

What if you just pay for 30 years, then you don't get.

You get a slightly smaller amount.

I see, I see. And does it grow with inflation?

It does. State pension is something that is incredibly protected. So, it's protected by something called triple lock.

Triple lock, three locks.

So, it guarantees that the pension rises by annual price inflation or average earning growth or a minimum of 2.5%, whatever is highest.

I see. But being completely honest, having lived in the UK ?800 a month really isn't enough to cover anything.

No.

Especially when you're, well I suppose you don't have to pay for medical, but still you might have to pay for other things. Can I pay further like extra additional pension through my work?

Pretty much, every company now has a workplace pension. So employees usually enroll in a workplace pension fund and these are deducted at source.

And then you'll get it once you retire.

But the problem is with private pensions is that they can go down as well as up. They're not as stable as the state pension.

So it's kind of like an investment.

It is.

If the company goes belly up, then there goes your pension.

That's what could happen.

So, you're taking a risk.

You're taking a risk. And this is one of the reasons why a lot of people, particularly as British society gets older, a lot of people work beyond the age of retirement.

Because they simply cannot afford to live on a pension.

Partly, but also because they want to get extra money.

You have to think that in the UK there's no restriction on people working beyond the pension age. And even if you're working, you still get your pension.

I think it's going to be the same in China, to be honest.

It is, it is.

For example, my dad, he reached the age of retirement, but he carried on working for about 4, 5 years.

So basically he collected the pay as usual as everybody else and the state pension.

And the state pension.

I see. And to finish today off, just want to ask you one thing. You don't have anything like housing fund, so people don't really get help to buy houses.

No. To get a house, if you are a first time buyer there's normally deductions in tax, you also get preferential mortgage rates.

I see.

But there's nothing really like the Chinese housing fund.

Well. But then again, not everybody gets housing fund in China.

Yeah.

Alright. I hope this episode satisfies some of your curiosity, although this is such a middle-aged topic.

It is, it is.

I feel intrinsically middle-aged now.

Well, yeah. I think what's more middle-aged is the fact that I know all of this.

Well, we are middle-aged. So perhaps in the next episode, you guys can suggest something fun, lighthearted.

Yes.

So, leave us a comment in the comment section to request anything that you would like for us to talk about in this segment “Britain Under the Microscope”. Thank you 安澜 for telling us all about these middle age issues.

That's fine.

So I look forward to talking about requests a little bit more young.

Okay. We'll see you next time.

Bye.

Bye.