Need NI Number for Hiring a car!

Know_Nothing

My Husband has a british passport and driving License, but now with this new rule he needs a NI number to hire a car when we go on holiday. He works for a non UK government and having reached his 65th year, has never needed a NI number.
So to hire a car on our holiday this July, he contacted the emplyment agency to apply for a NI number. When they asked why he wanted it, he said to comply with the new rules that you need a NI to hire a car, he was told " oh no we can't issue a NI number for that reason"
So what can he do now?:(
any advice?

agrinnall

Ask the non-UK government to give him a driving licence? Presumably he paid no tax in the UK while he was working so why should he be offered any help now?

Know_Nothing

True he pays no tax here, but also does not cost the uk government anything either, just wants to hire a car !

Car_54

There is no such "new rule", but I'm not surprised he's confused as there has been such a lot of alarmist comment in the press.

BeenThroughItAll

If he was born in the UK, he will have an NI number, and he can get it back. Google says so.
https://www.gov.uk/lost-national-insurance-number

thenudeone

Just apply for one on the basis that he is planning to work in the UK and his employers will ask for it.

SeduLOUs

My fella contacted HMRC when he moved back into the UK and couldn't find his NI number anywhere. They won't give it over the phone, it needs to be done in writing, and he waited approximately 6 weeks for it.

Not sure if that is a normal timescale, but just wanted to give an idea that even if they are happy to accommodate the request for a lost NI number (assuming he has been allocated one at some point in the past) he isn't going to just be told it immediately.

I have no idea how long a new application would take if he wasn't born in the UK and has never been given one.

Mercdriver

Are you sure they aren't asking for the number from the DVLA to show his licence status?

macman

They simply require an ID check-otherwise how would a non-UK resident ever be able to hire a car in the UK? NI no. is one way of doing that.

MX5huggy

macman wrote: »

They simply require an ID check-otherwise how would a non-UK resident ever be able to hire a car in the UK? NI no. is one way of doing that.

No, you need the NI number to access the online driving licence information.

AdrianC

MX5huggy wrote: »

No, you need the NI number to access the online driving licence information.

Not quite - YOU need YOUR NI number to access YOUR driving licence information, and generate the code to give to the hire firm.

Doesn't everybody just _know_ their NI number? It's not as if it's ever changed, since it was issued when we were 15yo or whatever. God knows what happened to the official card with it on - I haven't seen that for decades - but the number is as engraved in my brain as other important and unchanging details like my driving licence number.