National insurance number

[concerned!]

Hi there. Can anyone tell me what the last letter of my national insurance number stands for. It's just that it seems that every one I talk to their last digit is in order of the siblings in thier family i.e oldest ends in A the next in B and so on. However I am the youngest of two brothers and mine ends in C and his in B. Can anyone shed light on this for me please. Thanks!

[kempie]

The last letter is the least significant character of the NI number.

The only valid letters are A, B, C & D and if it is omitted the remaining unique number is sufficient to identify to whom it belongs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_insurance

[Piper-AK]

Thanks kempie, but why is the last letter of my NINo D and not A, B or C?  Why have it at all if it isn't used as a unique identifier?

[curiosity]

I was always led to believe that it indicated which Tax office area you were with, however I am the third child and it is C. I'm going to ask my siblings tomorrow.

[curiosity]

My partners is also C and he's the 2nd child, so it would seem that theory is out.

[THECORBYLOON]

When National Insurance was introduced, stamps had to be put on to cards and they were sent to Newcastle for the person's clerical records to be updated. The final letter A,B,C or D was used to split the year into quarters so that the cards would be sent in at different times of the year depending on the final letter. 

Child Benefit Centre started allocating reference numbers (identical to National Insurance numbers) to children some years ago and if there was more than one child in a family for whom they were paying, they allocated sequential numbers and the final letters were in the order A,B,C and D. If you think about it, folk weren't asked about siblings when allocating numbers in the past so how would they have know what final letter to issue? If the final letters did macth siblings' age order it is coincidence

If I want to access a claim for someone on Retirement Pension or Inacapacity Benefit I can omit the final letter of their NI number but if the same person is, on Income Support I do need it! It's the way wir computer sytems are set up.

[scarletpimp]

It's as easy as ABC...er...and D

[crisgal]

i was born in december and I'm a D so that makes sense then.

[twiglet4frog]

i am D and a december born only child

[B00]

Ummm, I'm also a D....but I was born in March

[Piper-AK]

I was born in March and am 'D' too, but that's OK 'cause it's the last month of the tax year (April 6th is first day of tax year).

[kempie]

...but that would make December 'C'.

I am also a 'D' but born in July.

[Piper-AK]

We can never understand taxes.......

[Laurinha]

I was born at the beginning of June and I'm a C.

[Laurinha]

Maybe it means nothing at all and they simply had the foresight all those years ago that it would make for a bit of a good chat on a website in the 21st century - no? 

[ursula62]

Sorry to blow the theory, but I'm a first born and my number ends in a C. My younger sister's number also ends in C.  I don't think the letter means anything at all.

[THECORBYLOON]

Has no-one read ma previous answer?

[mycatis]

pmsl poor TCL, and you gave such a nice clear answer (not being sarcastic by the way)

[THECORBYLOON]

THANK-YOU! I'll get back to stretching Brenda The Elephant's ears, there's wee ones' Christmas presents at stake!!!!!!!!!! 

[Narolines]

I'm an only child born in March and I'm a C, so the sibling order theory and the year-into-quarters theory both seem up the spout to me..........

[THECORBYLOON]

Narolines, I should have made this clear in ma first answer. The reasoning behind the use of the letters, to spread out the return of the cards made sense at the time. I don't know which quarters applied to each letter but I will try to find out. With the increase in employers making the National Insurance (NI) deductions, the use of cards became restricted to the self-employed but the format of the NI Number remains to this day.

Folk used to be allocated wi a Pension Number when they qualified for Retirement Pension. Some folk (mainly women) have never worked and therefore had no need for an NI Number. When it was decided to replace these Pension Numbers wi NI Numbers some years ago, they were given NI Numbers in the same format as everyone else.

All I'm trying to say is, there used to be a valid reason for the use of the final letters, that reason no longer applies but the format is still used.