durham_lad

Our daughter moved back to England mid November and some things have changed in the last few years that have made it easier than when we, and our son moved back in 2016 and 2017.

1. Wise accounts are easy to open from overseas, provide a UK style bank account and sort code and is even easier to send money and pay bills.

2. Instead of buying a new SIM card for your phone you can buy an “e sim “ and have your old and new phone numbers on the same phone. Much easier to use for the transition period.

3. You no longer need to prove residence when opening a UK bank account. In fact our daughter sat on the couch one evening shortly after she arrived and within 30 minutes had opened a Chase UK bank checking account online and received her debit card a few days later. Within minutes of her opening the account I sent her a few GBP from my UK bank app to test it was working already.

4. You no longer need to attend a Jobs Center Plus for an interview to get a National Insurance number. She did it entirely online which included uploading a copy of her passport and also a photo of herself holding her passport. She did need to provide proof of address but I had already added her name to our utility company a month before her move so she uploaded a pdf of last month’s bill. The NI number arrived by post 5 weeks later.

Has anyone noticed any other major changes to the moving back process?

BristolUK

Was that a brand new NINO or simply advising of an already registered account that one maybe never knew about? Not sure how many decades ago it changed but somewhere around the 80s/90s anyone who was part of their parents' child benefit claims was given a NINO that they would never have known anything about.

If leaving the UK as a child and then returning as an adult, that number would kick in with the adult simply proving who they were in order to receive it.

The procedures for new numbers were tightened up considerably many years ago because they were "too easy" to get. It's surprising they would reverse that but it might just be that working from home has reduced the availability of office based interviews.

durham_lad

That was a brand new NINO, just like our son in 2017. Our kids were age 4 and 6 when we left in 1987 and we never claimed child benefit for them, back then my wife received “family allowance” for each child just as our mothers had for us back in the 50s and 60s. You can search for a lost NINO online and when our son turned up for his NINO interview the first thing the DWP guy did was to repeat the search on his computer then ask me if I’d ever claimed child benefit for him. It is obvious that these things can be determined online or via phone so it was a nice surprise not to have to drive almost 50 miles to the center of Newcastle for an interview. (He didn’t have proof of residence like a utility bill but they accepted a utility bill for me plus a signed letter stating that he was living at that address.) That whole process took well over 2 months and by the time a NINO had been issued he had already found a job, was being paid and his company payroll department kept asking him for his NINO. After his interview he took away a letter saying that he was eligible to work, and his actual NINO arrived by post 2 weeks later.

BristolUK

Family Allowance from the 50s/60s was renamed Child Benefit in the 70s. It's the same thing but like other things people carried on using the same name.

It seems like you just missed the change in the system that would have resulted in NINO's being allocated to your kids then as their child benefit applications would have been around 81 and 83.

durham_lad

That’s good info for most “kids” moving back. It sounds like there would be very few without a NINO.

I expect that the new online process without an in-person interview might also apply to those not born here which is also a huge improvement.

Lion in Winter

Was online-only a covid innovation? My son (dual citizen, holding a British passport), moved to the UK as a uni student in 2018 and he did have to go to a job centre to get his national insurance number.

durham_lad

The change happened between our son in 2017 and daughter last month so I expect that it is new procedures since Covid but I don’t know for sure. I sent my daughter the link to apply and she told me that after she had applied the website said her application was accepted and she would hear within 4 weeks. (It took 5 weeks, but still came through before Christmas, date on the letter is Dec 23)

BristolUK

I'm not going to bore people with the time line but when I was first processing NINO applications (my first permanent job in the 70s) it was a mail in procedure. I had a signed for supply of numbered registration forms in my drawer

Later, doing a different job, but which sometimes involved NINO applicants it required an in person application but on a drop in basis.

Later still when there had likely been mass fraud involved because it was all too slack and there were several million more NINOs 'active' than there should be the whole thing was tightened up. Interviews by appointment, masses of documentation needed along with the gadgetry and examination to check if genuine, plus back stories including what schools attended 30 years earlier.

If no in person interview is the new normal and the same thing happens with all those rogue numbers again, I doubt it will be considered such a good idea.

My guess is covid related (WFH). Having said that, it's my impression that so much with job centres moved to on line long before covid that maybe this was something headed that way too.

durham_lad

Things have moved on since the 70s such as the internet plus many more things are accessible in computer databases. As I said above she had to provide an image of her UK passport plus take an online photograph of her holding that passport and upload a PDF of a utility bill. Passport details are available to government agencies these days including DWP and DVLA so a lot more checks can be done without an in-person visit.

in-person appearances are becoming rarer these days anyway due to online video. In creating an IRS account last year I had a video conference with someone to verify my information and hold up my passport plus show both sides of my SS card. I also had a video appointment with a notary last year when dealing with American Express over something.

tdrinker

If you can't prove your address via a utility bill, you could use the bank statement to do so, i.e. open a bank account without having to prove your address and use the statement as your proof of address document for institutions that require you to do so.

brits1

When we arrived back in the UK in 2010 we had to take our sons to Sheffield and apply for their NINO’s and they had to go “in person” we were told to do this as we had left the UK when our son’s were very young and had not been issued with a NINO, we had to take long birth certificates and passports, they received their numbers that same day but we had to wait for a while for this. It’s good your daughter did not have to do this, we opened an HSBC’s UK account without a UK address whilst still living in Australia so that part was easy. Enrolling at our local GP and NHS dentist was also pretty straightforward for us once those “things” were “done” we could start to relax.

durham_lad

Things are ticking along nicely. Yesterday her UK driving licence arrived, only a week after she applied online. Not even an uploaded photo was needed, she elected to use her UK passport photo that they can access.

BristolUK

As stated, the existence of a child benefit application from parents has resulted in NINOs being allotted to the child since the 1980s. The number itself was not issued so, yes, your (too young) sons would not have been issued with them but they will have existed.

It takes between 4 and 16 weeks to get a new NINO. There is no such thing as a fast track application.

The only way there has ever been of getting a same day NINO is when it already exists and then you could be advised of it following an ID interview/check*. The procedure involved from the time between a decision that a new number is needed - after all the checks involved to see if one already exists - and the actual allocating of it makes same day issue impossible.

*From what I'm reading on current Gov.UK websites an existing number will now be sent on to you rather than advised there and then.

BristolUK

For the change in application process, I just found this from Jan 2022.

16-week delay for National Insurance number applications

tdrinker

So, there was a 1 year delay and almost 2 years later they haven't caught up. Given they were on full salaries during the pandemic, it's unfortunate they haven't put in a bit extra and resolved the backlog. For how long is covid going to be an excuse for poor service?