Historic benefits

Here's a comprehensive overview of UK National Insurance sickness benefit in 1965.

Weekly rates (from March 1965)

The National Insurance Act 1965 set the standard weekly rates as:

(Pre-decimal currency: £1 = 20 shillings (s); 1 shilling = 12 pence (d).)

Who qualified?

To receive sickness benefit you generally had to:

• Be insured under the National Insurance scheme.
• Be incapable of work because of illness.
• Have paid enough National Insurance contributions in the relevant contribution year.
• Submit a doctor's medical certificate ("sick note") after the initial waiting period.

Waiting days

Benefit was not paid for the first three days of a spell of sickness (known as "waiting days"), unless the illness linked with a recent previous claim under the linking rules.

How long could it be paid?

Sickness benefit could normally be paid for up to:

• 156 days (about 28 weeks)

If a person remained incapable of work after that, they could move onto Invalidity Benefit, introduced later under reforms in the mid-1960s.

Reduced rates

If someone had not paid enough National Insurance contributions, they might still receive a reduced rate rather than the full £4.

For example, depending on the number of qualifying contributions:

• 77s 6d
• 74s 6d
• 71s
• 64s 6d
• 58s 6d
• 52s
• 46s
• 40s

with corresponding reduced benefit payments.

How it compared with wages

Typical manual earnings in 1965 were around:

• Men: £18–£22 per week
• Women: £9–£12 per week

So the standard sickness benefit of £4 per week replaced only around 20% of the average full-time male wage, although many workers also received additional sick pay from their employer.

Other benefits available

If a person's income was still too low while on sickness benefit, they could apply for:

• National Assistance (means-tested), which could top up income.
• Help with rent in some circumstances through local arrangements. Supplementary Benefit did not replace National Assistance until 1966.

Equivalent value today

Using general inflation:

• £4 per week in 1965 is approximately £90–£100 per week in today's prices.

Using average earnings instead of prices, the equivalent would be considerably higher because wages have risen faster than inflation over the long term.

Historical timeline

• 1948 – National Insurance sickness benefit began under the post-war welfare state.
• 1965 – Weekly rate increased to £4 under the National Insurance Act 1965.
• 1966 – National Assistance replaced by Supplementary Benefit.
• 1971 – Decimal currency introduced (100 pence to the pound).
• 1983 – Sickness Benefit replaced by Statutory Sick Pay for many employees, with further reforms over subsequent decades.

Invalidity Benefit did not exist in 1965. If someone was too ill to work in 1965, they remained on National Insurance Sickness Benefit, provided they continued to satisfy the contribution conditions. There was no higher long-term benefit for prolonged illness at that time.

Introduction of Invalidity Benefit

The benefit was introduced on 23 September 1971 by the Keith Joseph under the National Insurance Act 1971. It was designed to provide more generous support for people who had been incapable of work for more than 28 weeks (196 days).

How it worked

A claimant would normally receive:

• Sickness Benefit for the first 28 weeks of incapacity.
• Then automatically transfer to Invalidity Benefit, if still medically incapable of work and otherwise eligible.

What was paid?

Invalidity Benefit had two parts:

1. Invalidity Pension (a flat-rate weekly amount).
2. Invalidity Allowance, an extra payment if incapacity began at a younger age—the younger you were when you became incapable of work, the larger the allowance.

When it was introduced in 1971, the weekly rates included:

So someone who became permanently incapable of work before age 35 could receive £7.00 per week, plus any applicable increases for a spouse or children.

Contribution conditions

Like Sickness Benefit, Invalidity Benefit was contributory, meaning you generally needed sufficient National Insurance contributions. Those who did not qualify on contributions later had access to separate non-contributory schemes, beginning in 1975.

What happened before 1971?

This is often overlooked:

• 1948–1971: There was no Invalidity Benefit.
• Someone who remained ill for years simply stayed on Sickness Benefit, which could continue indefinitely if they met the medical and contribution conditions.

Housing :

As a rough guide, someone on National Insurance sickness benefit in 1965 who also qualified for National Assistance would often receive a top-up of around £1 to £2 per week, but it varied according to rent and household circumstances.

The important point is that rent was assessed separately. The National Assistance Board first calculated a person's basic living allowance, then added a reasonable amount for rent, often the full rent if it wasn't considered excessive.

For example:

• Single person
  • Sickness Benefit: £4.00
  • Typical average rent addition: about £1 6s 2d
  • Total income after National Assistance: roughly £5 6s (around £5.31) per week on average.
• Married couple
  • Sickness Benefit: £6 10s
  • Typical average rent addition: about £1 9s 9d
  • Total income after National Assistance: roughly £8.00 per week on average.

Those figures are averages. Someone with a higher rent could receive more, while someone with a very low rent might receive less.

Typical council rents in 1965

To put the housing element into context:

• Council house rents were commonly 15s–30s per week (75p to £1.50).
• Private rents could be £2–£4 per week, depending on the property and location.

If the rent was accepted as reasonable, National Assistance would usually cover it in full as part of the means-tested calculation.

Using UK inflation as a guide, £1 in 1965 has roughly the purchasing power of £21–£25 today, depending on the inflation series and calculation method.

That gives these approximate modern equivalents:

However, there's another way to look at it.

If you compare these payments with average earnings rather than prices, they appear much more generous in today's terms because wages have risen faster than inflation over the past 60 years. By that measure:

• £4 per week is roughly equivalent to £180–£220 a week in relation to average earnings.
• £5.30 per week is around £240–£290 a week.
• £8 per week is around £360–£430 a week.

Economists use both comparisons:

• Inflation (purchasing power) answers: "What could it buy?"
• Average earnings answers: "How did it compare with a typical worker's income?"

Aren't you glad you didn't rely on benefits in 1965 ?