National Insurance

• Payments made towards certain benefits such as the state retirement pension, incapacity benefit, and contribution-based jobseeker’s allowance.
• Paid at a flat rate of 11% on earnings over £105 per week up to £770 per week in 2008/09.
• You will also pay 1% of earnings above £770 per week in 2008/09.
• You will pay a lower amount as an employee if you are a member of your employer's contracted out pension scheme. 
• The payments are different if you are self-employed. 
• It is possible to overpay  NI contributions.

You can check if you are paying the right amount of income tax and national insurance on the online calculators on the related websites. You can also find out more about the position if you are self employed on the Government website.

If you think you might have overpaid NI contributions look at the related Government link to see about a refund.