Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what systems are in place to distinguish people's National Insurance details when more than one person share the same name and date of birth.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
HMRC issue a National Insurance number to an individual shortly before they reach their sixteenth birthday. The process ensures that no two individuals can be issued with the same number, even where they share the same name and date of birth. Where an individual has not been allocated a National Insurance number by HMRC, they can apply to DWP who will undertake a face to face interview to establish their identity and check entitlement to a number. This again ensures a National Insurance number cannot be issued to more than one person.
In each case, a National Insurance number will be unique to each individual and remain the same for life. Both HMRC and DWP take seriously any attempts to use the National Insurance number fraudulently and have a range of measures in place to counter abuse wherever it occurs.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what protection is in place to prevent fraudulent use of National Insurance numbers when individuals share the same name and date of birth.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
HMRC issue a National Insurance number to an individual shortly before they reach their sixteenth birthday. The process ensures that no two individuals can be issued with the same number, even where they share the same name and date of birth. Where an individual has not been allocated a National Insurance number by HMRC, they can apply to DWP who will undertake a face to face interview to establish their identity and check entitlement to a number. This again ensures a National Insurance number cannot be issued to more than one person.
In each case, a National Insurance number will be unique to each individual and remain the same for life. Both HMRC and DWP take seriously any attempts to use the National Insurance number fraudulently and have a range of measures in place to counter abuse wherever it occurs.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many complaints were received by HMRC from UK Businesses in relation to PDA1 (a) applications and (b) renewals in (i) 2015, (ii) 2016, (iii) 2017 and (iv) 2018.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
HMRC does not hold this information and to obtain it would be at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether people paid monthly for whom April was treated as month one prior to the introduction of Real Time Information (RTI), but for whom May would then be treated as month one after the introduction of RTI were overtaxed as a result of missing out on one month of tax-free pay at the point at which RTI was introduced.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The introduction of RTI did not result in changes to the tax calendar. The first payment made on or after the 6th April is classed as month 1 and this did not change post RTI. No individuals should have been overtaxed as a result of the implementation.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what legislative changes were made to enable employers to report real-time information on taxation to HMRC.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 No. 822 made the amendments necessary to the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/2682) to enable Pay As You Earn (PAYE) reporting in real time.
The collection of National Insurance contributions (NICs), the income tax construction industry scheme (CIS) and student loan repayments also rely on the PAYE system. Consequently amendments were also made to the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001 (SI 2001/1004), the Income Tax (Construction Industry Scheme) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/2045) and the Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/470) to reflect the introduction of reporting in real time.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government made an assessment of the potential merits of a conversion plan when introducing provisions on real-time information reporting to HMRC in order to mitigate the additional tax payable during the second 12-month period of the scheme as a result of moving the start of the tax year in 2013-14 from 1 April to 6 April.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
There were no changes made to the start of the tax year for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) as a result of the introduction of Real Time Information (RTI) which remained 6 April, or to the deadlines for paying the tax, National Insurance contributions and any other deductions due.
As RTI was not expected to affect the annual levels of tax receipts, no conversion plan for additional tax payable was considered for 2013-14.