SHERGAR

of the N.I.E. number?

jdr

So the taxman can keep a check on you, it stays with you all the time and so does he. ;-))

Fred James

The UK equivalent is probably your NI number.

SHERGAR

I guess the taxman may as well sign on the dole as we haven't got anything to tax.

Same Difference

Casa Santo Estevo

what no money at all?

rachelk

Don't you need your NIE number to sign up with a GP?

EsuriJohn

"Not a lot of people know this" but when the National Health Service was set up a secret decision was taken that the Health Service Number which everyone is given at birth would serve as your National Identity number should there be a need to introduce ID cards. So that little white card you have to register at the doctors would have served as your ID card. Roll on 55 years and we now have separate no's for health, NI, driving licence and passport and we are about to spend £12 billion on an ID card. The crafty Spaniards have one No NIF/NIE and I suspect it serves for everything and does not cost tupence hapenny to administer.

So I would say that the NIF/NIE No is closest to the Health Service No as it was intended to be but never was.

Impey

Found your post interesting.

My ID card reference when I was born (during WWII) then went on to become my NHS number for many years. It was only in recent years that I was given an all figure number instead of the original 4 letters and 3 figures which was easy to remember.

Still having my mother's ID card now with the various addresses on every time we had to move and the dates when, have proved invaluable when the younger family members were researching the family tree etc.

Econ

Just not logical at all is it, seems the Spanish have the right idea on this... maybe they should have been involved in the structure of the TB's IT databases maybe not understanding the fact the logic of 1 id to reference an item (or person) is why the whole thing in the UK seems to have been a disastrous waste of money.

One of the things that gets me about the whole id card thing in the UK is the amount of money the government want to charge for it. The Spanish id car is a pittance compared to the estimated cost in the UK which makes me wonder if it was not yet another money generating tactic.

The other is the seemingly total incompence of the current government to look after our information, not only look after it but to continually use it for a source of income. I was fully in favor of an ID card system being brought in as if done properly it would hopefully help make us more secure.. but now after the estimated cost (tax excuse) and government incompetence I am against it as I think we would be actually more secure without it... at least with the current government anyway.

mikelincs

For info, most hospitals are now dropping the hospital number for patients and just using the NHS number, this is because there have been so many amalgamations of hospitals and trusts, that there was a possibility that there could be mix ups of notes, results etc. and as more and more hospitals and GPs join in the national scheme, they need to be registered like that so that any Dr or hospital in the country can automatically access your patient records if they need to for treatment. It was also stated, at the time, and at the time this was instituted peoples NHS numbers were all changed, that it would make a great base for a national ID system as babies are given a NHS number at birth now, and not, as in the old days, when they first required hospital of medical tratment in their own right.