Last month HMRC sent the below update in respect of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and National Insurance numbers.

“We understand that there have been some questions regarding National Insurance numbers and the Job Retention Scheme and therefore hope the below is a helpful update.

When making a claim to the Job Retention Scheme, employers are asked to provide a National Insurance number (NINO) for each employee that they have furloughed. We are aware that in some limited circumstances an employer may not have a NINO for all employees.

Employee has a NINO but employer doesn’t know it

Where an employee has a NINO, but the employer does not know it they should make all reasonable efforts to establish it, including by making use of the RTI NINO Verification Request submission if appropriate.

Employee does not have a NINO

Where an employer has fewer than 100 furloughed employees but has one or more without a NINO they should contact the COVID-19 Helpline on 0800 024 1222 who can process their claim over the phone.

Where an employer has 100 or more furloughed employees, they must instead provide a payroll or employee reference number for any employee without NINO in their file upload.”