NI numbers 'given to suspected illegal immigrants'
Thursday, 1 June 2006 12:00 AM
The government is to change the law "as soon as possible" to ensure people who have no right to live or work in the UK are not given national insurance (NI) numbers.
The announcement comes after it was revealed that Jobcentre staff were giving them to people even where they believed their immigration documents may have been forged.
NI numbers are required by most employers and can also be used to claim benefits, but a Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) memo seen by The Times suggests concerns about possible abuses are being overridden by the demands of tax collection.
It says that when a person already in employment applies for an NI number and has falsified an immigration document, staff should grant it as long as they are satisfied about the person's identity - "even if we have suspicions around his immigration status".
The memo explains that as the Treasury has a duty to collect NI contributions and tax from all employees, irrespective of their immigration or right to work status, the DWP is obliged to allocate a NI number to all people in work.
But shadow home secretary David Davis warned that the revelation - which comes six years after the problem was first raised with the DWP - showed a "massive administration failure".
"The government's left hand still doesn't seem to know what its right hand is doing. This is a massive hole in our systems, both of benefits and employment and it is long past time it was put right," he said.
"This is not just a massive administrative failure - it is a massive failure of political will to get a grip on this problem."
Where officials suspect a person has forged their immigration documents, they must refer the case to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) for them to deal with.
About 3,300 such referrals are thought to have been made last year, but a Home Office spokesman admitted there were no figures on how many of these cases had actually led to prosecutions.
"Failing to check the immigration status of individuals seeking NI numbers is one thing," added Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg.
"But deliberately issuing those numbers even when the DWP suspects, and in some cases knows, the document to be forged is a travesty of the system in place."
Responding to the claims, a DWP spokeswoman said action would be taken immediately to resolve the problem.
"Having reviewed this issue, ministers have decided to change the law as soon as possible so that people who have no right to live or work in this country are not given a national insurance number," she said.
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