In October 2017 I wrote a blog post that laid out what to do in the case of an employee’s wages being processed under an incorrect NI number.
When an incorrect National Insurance number is used for an employee – the resulting stress and inconvenience can be considerable for the employer and individual alike.
HMRC issued new guidance
This week, as stated by HMRC’s Helpline, their advice varies from that which is mentioned in my October 2017 post.
The Guidance now states that –
Correcting the National Insurance number sent over RTI for the given payroll ID should automatically adjust HMRC’s systems and this should back-date to the beginning of the employment.
This advice suggests there should be no need for earlier year updates, nor calls to the Personal Taxes Helpline, once the NI number has been amended in-payroll and sent to HMRC via RTI.
At Dataplan, we recognise that, unfortunately, HMRC’s systems may not always work as straightforwardly as this guidance would indicate. This is why we have robust procedures in place to both prevent the problem from arising and to ensure it is dealt with swiftly if it does.
With this in mind – we stand ready to assist further, if ever a simple correction of the NI number in our payroll software doesn’t have the desired effect.
