UK NI Number - Irish Citizen with one, but forgotten, but need again !

Blue1902

Hi,

I'm sure I won't be the first person with this question. Must be literally 10s if not 100s of thousands who might have encountered a similar issue, so hoping to find somebody on here with the same experience and any helpful advice !

I had a UK NI ( National Insurance Number ) in the 1990s. They are issued once for life. I now need to remember it, or get it from the UK HMRC. but struggling as I have no documentation whatsoever to refer back to.

Situation is this: Irish Born Citizen. Moved to UK in the late 90s for 4 years. Was issued with an NI number in the UK, and paid Tax and National Insurance whilst working there. As it was just a job I was PAYE so had no interaction with state, employer just made deductions and I just got my take home pay and a payslip ( which I hardly recognised as having any significance at the time other than to make sure I had been paid properly), and had no reason to give it any more thought than that. Returned home to Ireland over 20 years ago, and that was that. I have no record of my NI number. I have no payslips or taxation documentation from that time of life. Employers either no longer in existance or unlikely to have info / or provide due to Data Protection.

There are two ways to attempt to find out a National Insurance Number if you have forgotten.

The first is to sign up for an online " Goverment Gateway " account, however, it is really geared towards British Citizens, as to sign up requires several forms of ID including British Passport, British Driving Licence, old Tax Documents, none of which are applicable or I have.

( Apparently there was a website called Gov.Verifiy which could be used by " Non Nationals ", but it has just been scrapped !!!!! )

The second is to fill in a form called " CA5403 ", but the questions are very basic, name, DOB, address, marraige, but my thinking is obviously my address in Ireland and Marraige here appear somewhat irrelevant, as those records would hardly be useful for verification in the UK ?

Has anybody else in a similar situation had success with getting their UK National Insurance Number ?

Looking at various forums it appears that British Citizens themselves are having difficulties, never mind those of us who just passed through for a while !

Thanks in Advance for any help !!!

Jim2007

As you pointed out yourself, the starting point is to complete a CA5403 and submit it. Have you done this?