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Written question asked by Lord Lucas (Conservative) on Wednesday, 14 July 2021, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 28 July 2021. It was answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott (Conservative) on Tuesday, 20 July 2021 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.


National Insurance

Question

To ask Her Majesty's Government why their systems use National Insurance numbers as personal identifiers if, at any given instant, they do not know whether such numbers are valid.

Answer

National Insurance Number are used as Identifiers for National Insurance Number Records; held for each individual who has been allocated a National Insurance Number.

Robust identity checks are undertaken when an application for a National Insurance Number is received. At the point of creation of a National Insurance Record the validity of the record has been confirmed.

Whilst a National Insurance Number is the identifier for a National Insurance account within the Department of Work and Pensions and HMRC, to enable Tax and Contributions to be posted to the citizen’s record and/or the administration of Department Benefits and Pensions, there are robust processes in place to validate a citizen’s/customer’s identity before a benefit/pension will be paid.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL2029
Session
2021-22
Subjects
National insurance
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk