My first AIBU...re CB and NI

[FatOwl]

I am British but now live overseas.
All three of my dds were born in the UK, so were my DH and I.

When we moved overseas in 2004 I stopped claiming CB (correctly as I was no longer entitled) It was actually quite hard to cancel it - not many people do!

My eldest dd is now back in the Uk permanently and intending to stay there. She has a British passport and birth cert. She was in the LEA school system unti lshe was 9 and has an NHS number.

She is having a NIGHTMARE getting a NI number because she has no CB record. 2004 is apparently ancient history and even their "Archive" doesn't go back that far.

AIBU to think it really shouldn't be this hard?

I know I would BU to think it would have been easier to commit Benefit fraud and continue to claim CB, but we wouldn't now have this problem if I had!

I can't help with your specific query but nothing about the inefficiency of bureaucracy surprises me, I'm sorry to say.

I sincerely hope they sort their process by the time my dds need one, together with the thousands of other children whose parents can no longer claim cb due to the higher tax rate change!

YANBU. It's ridiculous!

It shouldn't be that hard, I don't think it is connected to not having a CB record, I have known fostered and adopted children have their wrong name used on the NI card and it has been a nightmare to get it sorted out.

The people on the other end of the phone seem to follow a script and it is difficult to get any sense out of them.

Thanks for your responses. She has been told that she needs my CB number for her NI to be generated. I can't find it - I've been going through old paperwork from around the time of our move. I always had the CB payment direct into my account, so I never had a book or anything. I know I received a letter when it was stopped, but typically can't find it anywhere.

She has been on the phone to the "helpline"
They keep asking questions like "On what date did you become eligible to work in the UK?" and "Do you have indefinite right to remain"?

None of which really applies to her as she is British.

She is only 19 and has not had to "do" bureaucracy before.

Fat owl.

There is a chance that your number will be on a past bank statement but not sure how far the bank can go back. We have done this on the odd occasion for tax return when only having a partial entry.

How can someone obtain their childhood's child benefit number? I have a odd bureaucratic problem, which I won't divert the thread with, but it has suddenly occurred to me that having the child benefit number my mother would have had, could solve the mess.

I was born in the UK, but not in a hospital, in a tiny hamlet back end of no where,

and there was a fire at one of the record office at some point in the 70s,

we moved to other countries a lot, we returned to the UK on and off, and I was in school here on and off, did my A levels here,

But when it came to getting a national insurance number, we couldn't get me one, despite having a british passport and birth certificate.

Even though both of my parents were working directly for the british government.

It took about four and half years to get one.

They even accused my parents of adopting a child and bring it back, I look as celt as you could possible get, I had to go to quite a few meetings to establish I was my parents's child, we took my sisters as well who look just like me, as well as I have both my parents distinctive features,

but they kept insisting I was adopted and my parents had brought me in, even when my grandmother produced a copy of the times with my birth announcement in it, they claimed it was all an elaborate hoax.

in the four years it took to get a number, they gave one to my younger sister, who was also a home birth(different place) but had been out of the country as much as I had, it was not having any separate records,

Sad to hear they still haven't got their act together a couple of decades later.

It rears its head occasionally, having happily renewed my passport many times, I had to go all the way to Newport for inspection last time, as they wanted to check I was who I said I was, and a lot of guff about when I became a British citizen.

Renew her passport with plenty of time, when it is coming up, as it took an age.

and get loads of copies of birth certificates, as I tend to need them a lot.

OMG quoteunquote

I am going to stop moaning now!
I'vegot off skype with dd now and she has got an interview in about three weeks, where she has to take all her docs with her (ie passport, birth cert, anything else she has), so it hopefully won't take four years! !

Gosh quoteunquote, that's shocking, your poor parents! Presumably it could all be proven very quickly now with DNA though?

That is ridiculous OP. My oldest was born abroad, and only lived in UK for Reception year and I had CB for him that year. When he moved back to UK as an adult he had no trouble getting his NIN they said as I had claimed CB that year he was all in the system and issued his number within a couple of weeks of being in UK

Maybe DD could write to her MP, their involvement often helps 'focus' bureaucrats minds.

If she lived in the UK for her first ten years, why doesn't she already have an ni number? I have one and I haven't lived in the UK for 20 years. You get assigned one early on.

If the payments came out of your account your cb number might have been part of the reference number quoted on the direct debit/standing order - ask your bank - they may have to pull out of the archives but they may have to retain a lot of information - worth a try

Have a look on her birth certificate see if it's there, there was a short time that they put them on there. I remember someone else finding that the one they were issued matched a number on their BC.
My younger son had never lived in UK and was born abroad, he had more difficulty, but only because he had to have an interview and take all his info with him, then they issued with no problem. He took his US BC, UK passport, UK registration of birth abroad to the interview.
I too would call the local MP and have them light a fire under the idiots.