Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the administrative arrangements for notifying the Department for Work and Pensions of the death of holders of National Insurance numbers; and how soon after death they aim to be able to mark as deceased the records of the deceased person.

The information relating to how many National Insurance numbers were created in the last 10 years could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

For a National Insurance number to be allocated under the adult allocation process, which mainly affects adults entering the UK from abroad, an individual must be 16 or over, be able to prove their identity and immigration status. For employment related applications individuals must be able to prove that they have a legal right to work in the UK. There are no conditions for tax status.

Information and documents provided to support a National Insurance number application are checked and corroborated with Other Government Departments and third parties. The only legislative conditions that DWP will seek to verify are with the Home Office.

The allocation of National Insurance numbers under the adult allocation process is processed centrally for Great Britain but Northern Ireland is administered separately by the Department for Social Development Northern Ireland.

Upon the death of an individual, DWP receive automatic updates from the three General Register Offices (GRO), England & Wales, Scotland on a daily basis and Northern Ireland on a weekly basis. DWP undertakes a rigorous matching process against the updates received from the GROs to ensure that DWP IT Customer Information System (CIS) records are annotated with the Date of Death within 24 hours of the GRO notification being received.

Also when notified of a death DWP staff can input death data, as long as it is supported by appropriate documentation i.e. death certificate, which is updated in real time to the DWP IT Customer Information System.

It is not possible to advise how many non-British nationals have UK National Insurance numbers.