§ Alan SimpsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he expects the Department of Work and Pensions to make progress in respect of delays in issuing national insurance numbers and consequent non-payment of housing benefit. [73689]
§ Malcolm WicksI have been asked to reply.
In April 2001, the Department introduced an Enhanced National Insurance Number Process to provide more secure procedures for the allocation of national insurance numbers (NINOs) to adults living in the UK. These tighter controls combined with an increasing number of applications have regrettably led to delays in allocating permanent NINOs. Jobcentre Plus is addressing this through a national recovery plan implemented in April this year. We expect the backlog of applications to be fully cleared by March 2003.
However, the payment of Housing Benefit is not dependent on a customer having a NINO, as long as sufficient information and evidence of identity is provided for a NINO to be traced or allocated. Once the local authority is satisfied that this has been provided, and that all other conditions of entitlement have been met, Housing Benefit should be paid.