I have lost my National Insurance number what do I do?

To help you remember your National Insurance number, you are sent a plastic National Insurance number card, generally just before your 16th. It’s blue and red with a long number, which looks something like AB123456C, printed on it.

If you can’t find it, and now don’t know your NI number, you should contact your nearest Inland Revenue National Insurance Contributions office, or DWP office or, in Northern Ireland, the Department for Social Development. They will set up an interview with you to prove who you are, and give you another card.

You can search for your local office on the Inland Revenue site.

Even if you are working part-time or earning a low wage, perhaps too low to pay National Insurance contributions, you must still have an NI number to take a job.