No employment history

[samj538]

I recently checked my employment history on the HMRC app and I have no employment history for ten years, despite being employed by a company and paid weekly (by bank transfer) by them. I received a P60 and payslips (it took ages to get) when I asked for them a few years ago for a mortgage but I have never received anything else, as I didn't need them and it is a family business so I trusted them.

After querying this repeatedly, I have been told that they have just found out that the company has two PAYE reference numbers and this is why, could this be the reason why I do not have employment history? Apparently it is all going to get sorted once they get the right PAYE reference number but it does not seem right to me.

[Lambs]

S,

Firstly, from the facts as presented, I should NOT assume that your trust has been misplaced. This could easily be an innocent error, by the employer and/or by HMRC.

It is unusual - but more common than you might think - for a company to have accidentally accumulated more than one PAYE (employER) reference. When this happens, one PAYE scheme is usually "live" and the other(s) effectively dormant. But as PAYE filings are almost always computerised/online these days, this should NOT normally mean that an individual employEE's own PAYE record is missed or does not get updated. At the same time, it is conceivable that a duplicate PAYE record from the same employer has confused HMRC's systems.

There are a few reasons why each employee will want to make sure that their personal pay and tax records have been recorded correctly, including:

Your NICs history powers your State Pension on retirement, and entitlement to some working-age state benefits (NICs = National Insurance Contributions)
You may want proof of earnings from HMRC for a mortgage or loan application (as per your own experience)
To power private pension contributions
You may want to transfer (or benefit from) the new "Marriage Allowance" or Transferable Tax Allowance

Whatever the HMRC App might say at the moment, so long as HMRC is able to confirm to you that it is aware of your historic employment income then you should be OK. But, while you may be encouraged to "give the employer the benefit of the doubt" for the time being, each and all of the employees affected should - must - in time take steps to reassure themselves that their personal NICs history is correct and up to date. You will want at least 35 years' worth of qualifying NI contributions to achieve maximum State Pension entitlement (although things may of course change between now and when you / your colleagues eventually retire, etc.). Veteran advisers know that employees' NIC records are much easier to fix "now" than 5 minutes after someone has retired.

As an adviser, I have in the past been instructed by employers who have been wrong-footed by similar events, and where they want to reassure/make sure that their employees' individual tax/NICs affairs have been managed correctly by HMRC. But this can be a time-consuming - and potentially quite expensive - process. And it is important to be aware that your employer generally has no power or authority to act on your behalf, to represent you or to access your own tax records, through HMRC. Employers are obliged to tell HMRC about certain things relating to when and how much they pay you, etc., but HMRC is obliged to tell them nothing about you, because your personal tax affairs are confidential. So, do not assume that this is the employer's fault, or that it will be easy for them to fix - it might well be, but it might take a while.

Finally, it is also possible that, in the UNLIKELY scenario that one or more employees' personal tax/NI records have NOT been updating quietly in the background as they should, then when they ARE updated, it turns out that they/their partner have received Child Benefit, or (say) a taxable car benefit or similar, that should have been assessed in the past. I am not trying to worry you, and I do think the probability that an employee's tax records have been missed/overlooked AND their income profile AND personal circumstances coincide to result in an old tax bill suddenly appearing, but it can and does happen occasionally. Depending on employee/employer relationships, the employer might be "encouraged" to raise this with their accountant/adviser, to ascertain what has happened from the employee's perspective and maybe even to help fix it. But unless it has been established that this is categorically the employer's fault in the first place, as a non-lawyer I am doubtful they can be forced to assist.

I hope this is is helpful and reassures you, so far as possible.

Kind regards,

Lambs