The reason you make social security contributions payments is to give yourself protection under the Social Insurance Scheme.
Generally speaking, the Social Insurance Scheme applies to all persons in Guernsey, Alderney, Herm and Jethou who are over school leaving age.
There are three groups or 'Classes' of person under the Scheme. More information about one of the Classes and conditions is provided below, if you are not non-employed or over pension age you will need information about Class 1 employed persons and Class 2 self-employed persons, which can be found in the Useful Pages section of this page.
Non-employed people (under pension age)
- With some exceptions a non-employed person is someone who is neither employed or self-employed but instead is living off savings or investments.
- In addition there are people who, although employed or self-employed are treated as non-employed. This includes people who are:
- employed, but not receiving any wages or salary e.g. doing charitable or social work.
- employed, but receiving earnings below the 'lower earnings limit'.
- normally employed, but temporarily out of work or between jobs.
- self-employed, working part time and earning less than the annual 'lower earnings limit'.
- Further information can be downloaded from the
non-employed persons (under pension age) leaflet [153kb].
- If you have recently become non-employed, please download then complete and return the
- The table below shows the rates of contributions and allowances for non-employed people under pension age:
Non-employed contributions (under pension age) 2023 2022 Yearly percentage 11% 10.70% Upper income limit* £168,480.00 £157,404.00 Maximum weekly rate for people under pension age £336.25 £305.57 Lower income limit £21,190.00 £19,760.00 Minimum weekly rate for people under pension age
(unless exempt)£24.67 £22.34 Non-employed allowance** £9,527.00 £8,904.00 - * Non-employed people who expect their income to be less than the annual upper income limit can apply to have their rate of contribution based on their income rather than paying the maximum rate.
- ** The Class 3 non-employed allowance is subtracted from annual income with liability being calculated on the balance. People whose income, before the deduction of the allowance falls below the lower income limit will continue to be exempt from paying contributions.
People over pension age
- Social Security operates a Specialist Health and Long-term Care Scheme which covers residents of Guernsey, Alderney, Herm and Jethou.
- If you are over pension age you do not have to pay social insurance contributions but you do have to pay health insurance and long-term care contributions towards the Specialist Health and Long-term Care scheme. These contributions are payable by people over pension age and are based on assessable income.
- People who do not make an application to pay on the basis of their actual income will be charged at the maximum weekly contribution rate.
- If you have recently reached pension age, please download then complete and return the
- The table below shows the rates of contributions and allowances for non-employed people over pension age:
Non-employed contributions (over pension age) 2023 2022 Yearly percentage 3.6% 3.50% Upper income limit* £168,480.00 £157,404.00 Maximum weekly rate for people over pension age £110.04 £99.95 Lower income limit £21,190.00 £19,760.00 Minimum weekly rate for people over pension age
(unless exempt)£8.07 £7.31 Non-employed allowance** £9,527.00 £8,904.00 - * Non-employed people who expect their income to be less than the annual upper income limit can apply to have their rate of contribution based on their income rather than paying the maximum rate.
- ** The Class 3 non-employed allowance is subtracted from annual income with liability being calculated on the balance. People whose income, before the deduction of the allowance falls below the lower income limit will continue to be exempt from paying contributions.
Other rates (Class 3)
- Special rate contributions - payable by people who are temporarily out of work, between jobs and do not wish to claim unemployment benefit or are not entitled to an unemployment credit.
- Voluntary contributions - payable by non-employed people who have income below the lower income limit but wish to maintain their record for pension purposes.
- Overseas voluntary contributions - payable by people who are no longer living in Guernsey or Alderney but wish to maintain their record for pension purposes (please contact Social Security for details of the qualifying conditions).
- The table below shows the other contributions rates that fall under Class 3:
Non-employed - other rates 2023 2022 Special rate contributions £24.67 £22.34 Voluntary contributions £24.67 £22.34 Overseas voluntary contributions - Self-employed persons £122.38 £114.37 Overseas voluntary contributions - Non-employed persons £110.69 £103.45
More information about how to make a Social Security contributions payment is provided in the Useful Pages section.
