Gaps in NHI

Until last week I was working for a school where I never signed a contract and got paid cash, and I now have 7 months of gaps in my NHI coverage.

From the beginning of October last year until April, the school I worked for paid no NHI. I only noticed when I went to a doctor and my card was blocked. The school boss said it was a mistake and true to her word, my NHI was paid. Soon after they cut my hours from 20 per week to 4.5 because business magically slowed down - even though they had the same number of classes and students - and they let me go.

I went to the NHI office and they showed me the gaps. I explained my situation and was told that maybe the school didn’t have time to register me :man_shrugging:. Apparently my only option is to cover the gaps using my wife’s insurance. The problem is that my wife and I are separated. We still live together but lead separate lives and are not on speaking terms. It can be vitriolic and I think we’re waiting to see who moves out first. The last thing I want to do is ask her for anything.

I checked if I could just pay by myself, but was told the law states I must be put on my wife’s insurance. The clerk gave me the official enrollment eligibility list. It seems I am out of luck getting backdated NHI by my previous employer due to being paid cash under the table. I’m not a part of any union so I’m screwed for that. Next on the list is my wife.

Here comes the pipe dream…

Is there any way around this? I was also teaching private 1-1. Can I register as self employed or working privately and declare that as a source of income?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

I can assure you this isn’t true. I know people who have their spouse on the “public” insurance while they’re on their employer-(half) paid insurance because they make too much (and it would be cheaper for them if their spouse paid 100% out of pocket rather than the employer paying half or however that works)

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I’m confused by the timeline here. It seems to say that the school you were working for the 7 months between October and April already paid your NHI for that period…so why would there be a gap?

I assume you have some kind of open work permit so you weren’t doing anything illegal in that respect (although it looks like you and the school didn’t want to declare the money for taxes).

I don’t think the school has the option of paying or not paying your NHI, do they? And you also wrote at the beginning that they’d paid…at least some? Anyway, maybe you could contact the employer and try to get them to fix their “oversight” and declare your income properly. I imagine it could be at least as much as a problem for them as it is for you if they’ve underdeclared/misdeclared/not declared your income and get found out, so it might be in their interest to correct it as well, even if they’re not happy about forking more money out after you’ve left.

What is public insurance?

Paying on the public marketplace/directly to the NHI

公所投保