HC Deb 09 February 2004 vol 417 cc1350-2W
Norman Lamb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of those who are due to receive delayed deficiency notices from the National Insurance Contributions Office for each year since 2000 have received the notices; and if he will make a statement. [153285]

Dawn Primarolo

The Inland Revenue has started writing to people whose national insurance account shows shortfalls for the years 1996–97 to 2001–02. As the letters may cover any or all of those years, it is not possible to identify separately the letters which relate just to the years since 2000. In total, 10.2 million letters will be issued. As of 1 February 2004, £1.2 million had been sent out. It is anticipated that all letters will be sent out by September.

Norman Lamb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether investigations into the submission by employers of(a) incorrect and (b) invalid national insurance numbers have ever been suspended; and if he will make a statement. [153286]

Dawn Primarolo

Such investigations are carried out on a daily basis as part of the Inland Revenue's normal work procedures to ensure that, where possible, national insurance contributions sent in by employers are properly recorded on employees' individual national insurance accounts. There has not been any suspension of this activity.

Norman Lamb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many end of year returns which could not be linked to a national insurance account have been left unallocated at the end of each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [153287]

Dawn Primarolo

The Inland Revenue estimate that around 55 million end of year contribution returns are received each year. Around 4 per cent. of these contain incomplete or incorrect identifying details and cannot be allocated to an individual national insurance account without further information. Most of these non-matching items have no or little impact on people's benefit entitlements. The Inland Revenue works with employers to trace and match contributions, concentrating on cases where they are likely to have a significant impact on entitlement.

The number of end of year returns not linked to a national insurance account as at 31 March 2003 is given in the table. The numbers outstanding as at 31 March 2002 and earlier years are not available.

Number
1997–98 1,776,278
1998–99 2,690,708
1999–2000 2,205,116
2000–01 2,312,424
2001–02 2,359,896

Norman Lamb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether there is a margin of error allowed by the National Insurance Contributions Office when calculating national insurance figures; and if he will make a statement. [153290]

Dawn Primarolo

In the vast majority of cases national insurance records are updated accurately. In some cases where the information received is inaccurate, the Inland Revenue takes all reasonable action to investigate and correct the records, but operates administrative tolerances where the costs of investigating would be excessive compared to the amounts involved. In these cases the amount recorded on the employee's national insurance account always reflects the higher value so that they do not lose out on future benefit entitlement.

Norman Lamb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what backlogs there are in the handling of national insurance data in the National Insurance Contributions Office; and if he will make a statement. [153291]

Dawn Primarolo

The National Insurance Contributions Office is on track to meet all its targets for processing national insurance data in 2003–04.

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