A woman has been told she is officially dead by HM Revenue and Customs after it allocated her National Insurance number to a stranger who has since died. The error has prevented her from processing a pension top-up request.
The woman, who moved to the UK in 1991 and worked for six years, was issued a temporary NI number in 2015 when HMRC could not find her original number. Despite years of attempts to resolve the issue, including letters and visits to HMRC offices, she was recently told she might have to wait 86 weeks for a response.
HMRC admitted that in 1991 it issued her a number that already belonged to someone else. It claims too much time has passed to investigate how the error occurred. The woman has now been advised to apply for a new NI number from the Department for Work and Pensions, after which HMRC will merge her records.
HMRC has offered £250 in compensation, but the woman has been advised to seek professional advice due to potential missed entitlements or liabilities from having multiple NI numbers.
