ID Theft

is it possible to change your national insurance number?

as a safeguard, now that our government has handed all our details including NI numbers to whoever finds them and wants to steal our identities............can we demand new numbers as one of the precautions we must now take? maybe all 25 million of us should sue the government, I'm not after compensation just the satisfaction of a general election.........

Public Comments

1. No, you have the same one for life
2. oh dear...everyone is mad but no need to panic. just keep on the look out for stuff suspicious in banck account etc. theres nothign me or you can do, we are all in it togetehr. or blame the prime minister.
3. no not at all - but a NI num isn't really usefull except to get interest without tax deducted.
4. i think that if enough people demand it we should get it they never seen to lose our tax bills do they i mean cd's honestly who still uses them, they never even got a proof of purchase or paid for recorded delivery
5. Sure- send for our list.
6. no sorry,but try not to worry so much about it,
7. Actually I was listening to the radio tonight on my way to work and this womans NI number had been given to someone with a very similar name to her in error - she was being taxed for years as a person with 2 jobs. Eventually it came out in the wash and she was told she had paid £8000 in tax too much. But there was some sort of clause that said she could only back date a claim for 6 years so in the end she only got £2000 back. Unbelievable eh? Think we should be more worried than we think!
8. I know someone who forgot his n.i number about 30 years ago, so he made one up. He was signing on at the time and he still has the made up number, and this n.i number is recognised.
9. That might not help...if you watched Watchdog this week, they had a bit about the government giving the same NI number to 2 people, as a result one of these folk had been paying too much tax for years, but was told that she could only claim money back for the last six years, even though it was the governments fault. If we cant trust the government to keep are details safe, who can we trust?
10. As a former inland Revenue employee, I can tell you that you are stuck with the NI number for life. Personally, I think it is not enough that the Chairman of HMRC has resigned. There was a time, not too long ago, when the minister responsible for the department would also have resigned, as a matter of honour. In fact, any time a Tory father an illegitimate child many of those who make up the current government were screaming for the poor sod's head on a platter. They got it too. What a difference 20 years makes.
11. No. You don't actually think that Brown and co are worried about you. Your NI number will never be changed as this would cause the government even more chaos and expense, and that means all tax payers as Brown and co will not be paying for this debacle, however it is not the loss of Ni numbers that is the problem it is the fact that they are tied to your name, address, bank details and who your children are that will be the problem.
12. No I don't think you can do this. I was told this number was for life. However, I started work at 15 and had a number allocated. Just before I reached retirement (60) I discovered that someone else had exactly the same NI number!!!!