petitefrancaise

my son will be returning to the UK - he was born there, lived there until he was 3.5yrs old and I claimed child benefit for him until we left in 2002. Does anyone know if he will already have an NI number? I can't find one on any of the documents I have from that time.
Can he apply for it before being physically back in the UK or does he need to wait until he gets there in a couple of months?
thanks!

BritInParis

Chances are he’ll already have one. He can find it here: https://www.gov.uk/lost-national-insurance-number

Brightongirl

I recently sent off the form to find my lost NI number. I phoned them first and was told that if my parents had claimed child benefits for me, I should have one.

Twitcher1958

That’s different to what I thought - my son was born in 1998 and I thought they’d stopped issuing them at a young age then. We left when he was 12 and I don’t think he had one when we left, although my daughter, who was 4 years older, had always had one.

Brightongirl

Maybe it's change since I was young and my parents claimed child benefits for me. (I'm now 53.) From outside the UK you can phone: +44 (0) 191 203 7010.
From the US dial 011 44 191 203 7010. Or just send in the form BritInParis suggested. Good luck!

jarv5116

I'm in my 30s. I lived in the UK all my life up until a few years ago.
I didn't get a NI card till I was 15 or 16.
It was a little red and blue bank card with my number on it.
Everyone in my age group was the same.
I don't know if it has changed now.

durham_lad

It is still that way now. My niece here got her NI card in the post when she turned 16.

Our son returned in 2017 having left the UK with us in 1987 when he was 4 years old. He didn't have a NI number and had to apply for one. I attended his interview at the JobCentre Plus in Newcastle and was asked if we had ever claimed child benefit for him before we left for the USA. (We hadn't). The chap did a bit more looking at his PC monitor and confirmed that he didn't have an NI number. His NI number arrived in the post a couple of weeks later although the man did give him an official letter to take away stating that he was eligible to work in the UK.

scot47

I think the current system is that if your parents get Child Benefit for you, an NI number and card will be issued automatically.

BritInParis

The blue and red cards stopped being issued in July 2011. You now receive a letter from HMRC three months before your sixteenth birthday. If your parents claimed Child Benefit then you will have already been issued a number. If not it’s generated at the time of issue.

durham_lad

Thanks for the clarification. I checked with my sister and her daughter did receive a letter, not a card, with her NI number at age 16. That was the easy bit, getting her out to work is proving to be more challenging.