§ Ms StuartTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what proportion of completed national insurance annual returns are rejected; and if she will provide a breakdown of the reasons given for rejection and the number of returns rejected by size of company. [39982]
§ Mr. DenhamThe administration of National Insurance contribution records is a matter for George Bertram, the Chief Executive of the Contributions Agency. He will write to my hon. Friend with further details.
Letter from George Bertram to Ms Gisela Stuart:
As Chief Executive of the Contributions Agency I have responsibility for answering questions about operational matters relating to the Agency and the administration of the National Insurance (NI) scheme. I have been asked to reply to your question about the number of NI returns which are rejected.During the 1997–98 year a total of 46,753,630 National Insurance contribution (NIC) items were accepted onto the National Insurance Recording system (NIRS) of which 2.6 per cent. were rejected for further clerical investigation.There are many individual reasons why a contribution item is rejected, however the Contributions Agency records each rejected item under the following categories:Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)/Maximum pay output—21,649 items rejected 1997/98These items were rejected because the maximum annual SSP payment had been exceeded.Employers Contracted Out Numbers and scheme Contracted out numbers—21,326 items rejectedThese items omitted, or contained incorrect details of pension scheme identification numbers.Ratio Check failures—239,994 items rejectedNIRS undertakes a number of checks to validate the financial information contained on annual returns. The items rejected under this category failed the criteria for acceptance by the system, for example:The NICs recorded are not in the correct ratio and do not agree with the amounts and category letter used.Compatibility Reports—126,311 items rejectedThis is where the category letter entered on the End of year Return does not match the existing liability recorded on the NI account.532WExcess Reports—179,275 items rejectedThese items are rejected because the NICs exceed the annual maximum.Non Matching items—657,564 items rejectedThese items are rejected because the personal details and NI number details shown on the P14 do not match those held on the NI account.Turning to the final part of your question I am afraid that I am unable to provide information relating to the number of returns rejected by size of company. There is no tracking system on NIRS to identify rejected individual annual returns against employers scheme details.