National Insurance Number / applying for citizenship

I've been in the UK for 18 years now, came in with a work permit. At the time I started work Inland Revenue generated an NI number for me, which appears on all my P60's.  I asked them about applying for an NI number and they told me it was not a requirement before you start work and in fact people work for many years without an NI number.

So, I didn't do anything further and just used the number issued to me by Inland Revenue.

Now I want to apply for UK citizenship this year (I have had my ILR for many many years already).

So my question is: Should I now apply for an NI number?  Or would it just confuse the issue because there's a number already appearing on my tax account with Inland Revenue going back many years?

I'm still not entirely clear on exactly what is the distinction between the NI number one applies for, interviews for etc. vs Inland Revenue who are more than happy to generate a number for you and do not require anything further.

You were issued with a temporary NI number when you arrived, which will have your date of birth in it... it was just supposed to tide you over until you could apply for a permanent one.

Temporary NI numbers are no longer issued and since 2001 employers have not been allowed to use them when filing their end of year returns... so they should have been leaving yours blank for the last few years, which means you could have been paying the wrong amount of tax all this time.

You really should have applied for a permanent one years ago (i.e. as soon as possible after you arrived) as you may have either been paying too much or too little tax for the last 18 years.

I would apply for a permanent NI number ASAP and make sure you get your taxes sorted out before applying for citizenship.


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Thanks for your reply ksand24, However, the number I have is not just my initials and date of birth and it was issued to me in 2002. I also know I am, in fact, paying the right amount of tax.

I know what you're thinking of regarding a temporary number and BR M1 tax rate. I can assure this is not what I have.