National Insurance
People are given a National Insurance number, often called a NINo, when they are 16.  They must have this to get work.  Workers make regular payments calculated as a fraction of their pay. The payments are collected and recorded by HM Revenue and Customs. Until 1973 people had a card for each year with stamps to show they had paid.  After that it was joined to the system for collecting income tax.  They can then get benefits when they cannot work.