my wife had to give up work approx 18 months ago due to ill health,she had her claim for ESA thrown out twice (thats another story) should she need to still be making NI contributions ? shes 57.
It depends how many years she has paid for. i'll find a link. I think you need only 30 years now rather than the old figure of something like 44.
Can she claim Contribution based JSA (based on NI contributions in an earlier year)- if she gets that her contributions will be paid for her for up to 6 months