UC allocating client “a new ” NINO !!!

my client tells me that when he rang ESA to chase up his ESA50 form they could not find his details from his NINO, He called ESA again a week later and they were aware of his new address even though he has not moved to it yet, and more stranger still he was told that his file could not be found the first time he called as his NINO has been changed and he was being allocated a new one by UC, they even told him what his new NINO would be and indeed it was not the same as his old one. comments please , I always thought a NINO was for life.

I am not sure what sort of comments you are looking for but it sounds like either something very odd is going on or someone has gotten the wrong end of the stick,

Strange case and I can’t offer much help other than NIno’s can be changed if the same number has mistakenly been issued to more than one person. I had an unending nightmare trying to sort out just such a case not too long ago, client was left destitute for months whilst we waded through treacle trying to resolve it. Your case sounds like it has resolved much quicker. In my client’s case, he was born abroad and came to the UK as an adult which I imagine had something to do with the cock up.

Apparently, if you are born in the UK you are allocated a NIno when registered at birth but most people don’t get told what it is until shortly before their 16th birthday. If you appeal against a DLA decision you will see that the child has a NI number though, whatever age.  Google assures you that your NIno cannot be changed but it isn’t too hard to think of some circumstances when it must be possible.

As a complete aside, when my client eventually got an interview in connection with getting his new NI number the interviewer was quite excited to hear about the circumstances. He relayed a story to me of how he was himself detained at Karachi airport as a suspected terrorist whilst on a family holiday. Somebody on Interpol’s radar had been using his NI number in the UK and Pakistan ISI thought it had caught a big fish. Fortunately, working for the DWP NI section, he was able to put them in touch with senior officials who confirmed his identity, that he worked for the DWP, it had authorised his annual leave to go to Karachi, and he was released. He thought it hilarious that the word of his DWP managers was enough to convince Pakistan military intelligence to let him go.

Edit - see also https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/national-insurance-manual/nim39105