In our earlier work on Northern Ireland’s public finances, we found it impossible fully to reconcile the reported flows of money in and out of the Executive. The reason turned out to be the omission of the Northern Ireland National Insurance Fund (NI NIF) — the pot into which National Insurance Contributions (NICs) are paid, and from which pensions and other contributory benefits are financed.
This paper explains how recognising those flows largely resolves the discrepancy and gives a fuller picture of how money moves into and out of the Executive.
The paper is in three parts:
- Chapter 1 sets out the funding flows from the NI NIF and demonstrates the simple relationship between Supply and NIF funding and departments' budgets (DEL and AME);
- Chapter 2 presents a fresh 'money in and money out' analysis from that published in our Comprehensive Guide; and
- Chapter 3 sets out our conclusions from the above analyses.