§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, pursuant to his reply on 19 December 1983, Official Report, c. 68, he will give a breakdown of his figure of 518,493 documents received at his central office in 1982–83 containing incorrect national insurance numbers indicating what the documents related to and who sent them.
§ Dr. Boyson[pursuant to his reply, 16 January 1984, c. 130]: I regret to say that the figure of 518,493 given previously was not accurate. The correct figure is 571,885, ignoring documents received that were incorrectly numbered but related to such small amounts that no corrective action was taken. Of the 571,885 documents some 11,000 were contribution cards for class 2 or 3 contributors prepared by the Department's local offices; some 10,000 were notifications of credits for 449W unemployment on magnetic tape prepared by the Department of Employment's computer centres; and some 80,000 were notifications of credits for unemployment and sickness benefits prepared by local offices of the Department of Employment and DHSS. The remaining 471,000 comprised some 57,000 tax deduction documents prepared by employers on magnetic tapes and sent direct to the central office and 414,000 tax deduction documents prepared by employers and sent to central office mainly via the Inland Revenue.
§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he has any estimate of the delay in payments of benefits and the amount of benefit involved due to the 518,493 documents containing incorrect national insurance numbers received at his Department's central office in 1982–83.
§ Dr. Boyson[pursuant to his reply, 16 January 1984, c. 130]: It is not possible to estimate either the number of 450W cases in which there was a delay in payment of benefit or the amount of benefit involved in respect of the documents bearing incorrect national insurance numbers received at Newcastle central office in 1982–83, but both are likely to be small. Claims to short-term benefits, such as sickness or unemployment benefits, would not be affected by contributions paid in the 1982–83 income tax year until January 1984. Any claim made during 1983 would depend on a person's contribution record in 1981–82. This gap of nine months between the end of an income tax year and the beginning of a benefit year in the following January normally allows the Department time to clear queries and to see that contributions are correctly recorded. In the case of claims for pension, there would be no delay in payment because of a doubt about contributions paid in the last contribution year. Where, exceptionally, an incorrect national insurance number resulted in payment of less than the full amount of pension, arrears would be paid as soon as possible.