Social Security Benefits: National Insurance

(asked on 18th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department records instances of a person's National Insurance Number being used as a payment reference on benefits statements as a breach of the General Data Protection Regulation; and what steps her Department is taking to protect people's data.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 28th February 2022

The Department does not record instances of a person’s National Insurance Number (NINO) being used as a payment reference on benefits statement as a breach of General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). DWP provide banks with a reference up to 18 characters which for most DWP Benefits incorporates the NINO. The Department is aware that banks use the information in the exact format provided to them by DWP, but ultimately how much of it appears on the customer’s statement is the responsibility of the bank.

It is also important to note that the use of the NINO in this way does not breach the Data Protection Act as customers are made aware on the claim forms that their NINO may be shown on bank / building society account statements when payments are made.

The Department takes the security of citizen data very seriously and its strategy is to treat it as an asset. We continue to embed data protection and security by design – ensuring we hold ourselves to the highest security and protection standards. The Department has a suite of security policies, supported by real time risk-based controls, procedures and education and awareness products to protect customer data from inappropriate access or disclosure to unauthorised third parties.

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