Hansard

National Insurance

Volume 479: debated on Monday 29 September 2008

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Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the Written Ministerial Statement of 9 May 2008, Official Report, column 44WS, on national insurance numbers, what estimate he has made of (a) the number of national insurance numbers held by partners of legitimate benefit claimants who do not have a right to be in the UK and (b) how many such partners have obtained benefits themselves; and what steps he is taking to revoke the national insurance numbers held by such partners. (206331)

Mr. Timms

[holding answer 16 May 2008]: The information needed to make an estimate of the number of national insurance numbers held by partners of legitimate benefit claimants who do not have a right to be in the UK is not available.

The Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 excludes persons subject to immigration control from income-related and other non-contributory social security benefits. Foreign nationals who do not have a right to be in the UK are subject to immigration control and therefore do not qualify for those benefits in their own right.

A national insurance number does not itself confer any rights to benefits or access to services and the current practice is for a national insurance number, once allocated, not to be revoked except in specified circumstances.

Mr. Evennett

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many national insurance numbers were incorrectly issued in each of the last 10 years. (213444)

Mr. Plaskitt

The Department undertakes rigorous checks on the identity of all adult national insurance number applicants and only when it is satisfied with the identity of an individual will a number be allocated.

There are limited occasions where it is identified that an individual has been issued two national insurance numbers. In this situation one of the numbers will be cancelled.

Figures are only available from 2001.

Occasions when an individual has initially been issued more than one national insurance number

Number of cases

2001

586

2002

447

2003

303

2004

513

2005

497

2006

534

2007

1,517

2008 (part)

324

Notes:

1. Source data is Management Information.

2. Figures relate to calendar years.

3. Figures for 2008 relate to the period 1 January to 30 June 2008.

4. Figures relate to the year the NINO was cancelled from the DWP IT records.

5. The figure for 2007 is disproportionately high as it reflects an IT problem which occurred during the transfer of NINO accounts from the former Departmental Central Index (DCI) to the improved Customer Information System (CIS). The problem was immediately rectified. The figure for 2007 (excluding these IT problem cases) is 562.

As mentioned in PQ/08/206330, we also identified earlier this year as part of the Security Industry Authority NINO checks that a small number of NINOs (25) had been incorrectly issued to individuals who did not have the right to work. However, this was due to a temporary misunderstanding and quickly rectified.