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Question on application form
Andy Birkenhead
Posts: 13,450 Forum Member
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Down at the job center, they tell you never to give your National Insurance number on an application form.
I have got an application form to fill in and have a guess what one of the first question is ?
That's right :
"National Insurance Number"
So what do I do - ignore the question and risk having the application form rejected because I haven't answered all the questions ?
I have got an application form to fill in and have a guess what one of the first question is ?
That's right :
"National Insurance Number"
So what do I do - ignore the question and risk having the application form rejected because I haven't answered all the questions ?
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I did an internet search and a lot of sites said not to give it including reed.co.uk (recruitment firm) and HMRC
It will be interesting to see what others say.
I guess you have two choices
1. Leave it off and see what they say
2. Phone them up and express your concerns (with a few quotes saying not to do it) and see what they say
I think they want to know if you can work in the uk without actually asking that question,
Which is odd because they are allowed to ask that question, and would have every right to do so.
Is it a major employer?
I was wondering too - mine is on my CV as well
Is it an identity theft thing?
Can anyone cite sources saying you shouldn't do it? And explain why? Pretty sure I've had large reputable employers ask for it at application stage.
It is not a form of ID, So what can they do?
Well, I'm just going by what the job center has told me.
Bit confused by this as you quoted my post which did give two sources namely reed.co.uk and HMRC
I was meaning something a bit more specific, rather than expecting us to trawl through their websites. I couldn't find anything from a quick Google. All I can see is some general advice about not responding to obvious phishing-type emails offering work.
Yea i understand that. Just strange thing for them to tell you.
you should have said
http://www.reed.co.uk/yoursecurity
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/faqs/ynino.htm
The HMRC one is not the one I had the other day but it gives the idea
Ok, that's more "don't advertise it unnecessarily", rather than "never put it on an application form, even to a bona fide employer", which seems to be the "advice" the OP has been given.
I figure that once employers have been told my phone number, current salary and sexual orientation, they may as well have my NI number as well.
How did I know you just wanted the links to pick holes in them. Oh well ...............
(and I disagree with your analysis but so what everyone is entitled to their own opinion ;-) )
Is that true? My siblings and I all have pretty similar numbers and there's an age range of 7 years between us whereas my partner is born in the same month and year as my sister and his number is entirely different. You could easily tell someone's age from checking their education or work history.
No, I wanted the links because I was curious as to whether there actually was any "official" advice not to put NI numbers on application forms, as it's not something I've heard of before.
If it is possible to identify age brackets from NI numbers, as suggested above, that would actually be a sensible reason for not making them available to the selection panel (though age discrimination is difficult to avoid once you've put down your employment history etc).
Why? I have done this for years, and I'm not sure why people are saying not to now?