NI number for very young child's bare trust investment account?

dunroving

Hi, basic question I can't find an answer to online. I'm applying for an investment account held in bare trust with AJ Bell, for a young (1 year old) relative.

The form asks for the beneficiary's NI number but her mum thinks she doesn't have one. The gov.uk site implies a NI number should only be applied for "... if you’re planning to: work; claim benefits; apply for a student loan; or pay Class 3 voluntary National Insurance contributions - none of which apply.

I found an old thread on here, that says a bare trust account is linked to the child's NI number, but they don't receive this until they are 16, and the thread doesn't include any information on how to get one for a young child.

Can anybody give advice, or have experience of what to do?

[Deleted User]

Just leave it blank, the child will not get one until they are 16

bowlhead99

In theory there is a unique identifier assigned at birth even though young people don't routinely get sent an NI card until they approach 16 (assuming they either live in the UK or someone in the UK is getting child benefit for them).  If you don't pay tax or claim benefits you would not generally need one from day to day, which is why the gov uk site give the examples they do about when you might like to apply for one (e.g. if you had moved to the country and needed it for those reasons you mention and didn't already have one). 

A financial institution is duty bound to ask for the tax ID of the account beneficiary but typically offer an option to say you don't have one and why. For example someone just moving to the country might say 'applied for'. Perhaps AJB are not offering that option on their form because they only want to give accounts to bona fide UK residents. However, when publishing facts about UK tax ID numbers to the OECD (so that foreign banks would know what to expect for a UK resident), HMRC said: "TINs are not issued to individuals who do not have a liability for UK tax or National Insurance Contributions, this includes those under 16 years of age, those who do not have a right to work in the UK as well as those with no UK tax or National Insurance Contributions liability".  So that's your answer if AJB query it.

On AJ Bell's form, just scrawl in your best handwriting next to the box 'not held- beneficiary is 1 yr old'. You can still tick the other boxes saying 'was the beneficiary born in the UK, are they solely UK resident, solely UK national' etc. 

dunroving

Thanks both. I managed to get a response from AJ Bell, who said I should leave the NI number field, and phone number, and email address, blank. Hopefully this will be helpful to anybody searching for this problem on the forum.
(You'd think the form would explain this ...)

bowlhead99

dunroving said:

(You'd think the form would explain this ...)

You'd think the person filling out the form who didn't have an NI number or email address for a baby to put into the empty box on the form, would not need the suggestions to leave it blank or write n/a or write why they couldn't fill it in. 

dunroving

bowlhead99 said:

dunroving said:

(You'd think the form would explain this ...)

You'd think the person filling out the form who didn't have an NI number or email address for a baby to put into the empty box on the form, would not need the suggestions to leave it blank or write n/a or write why they couldn't fill it in. 

You'd think so, if said person didn't have countless previous experiences of bureaucratic lack of logic.