Guidance

Find or check an employee's National Insurance number using Basic PAYE Tools

Updated 17 December 2024

Introduction

You can find, or check, an employee’s National Insurance number by sending a National Insurance Number Verification Request (NVR) through Basic PAYE Tools.

Send an NVR if you’re an employer and your commercial payroll software cannot find or check employees’ National Insurance numbers.

Before you start

As an employer you must register with HMRC for PAYE Online before you use Basic PAYE Tools to run your payroll calculations and submissions.

You need to wait at least 2 weeks after sending your first Full Payment Submission before sending an NVR. This will not generate a new National Insurance number.

If your employee has never had a National Insurance number, tell them to apply for a National Insurance number.

Set up the Basic PAYE Tools software

To use Basic PAYE Tools to send an NVR you must:

• download and install the software
• set up the employer
• set up the employees whose National Insurance numbers you want to check

Get help setting up Basic PAYE Tools.

Create an NVR for an employee

1. Launch Basic PAYE Tools.
2. Select ‘Home’. This will take you to the home page.
3. Select the employer from the ‘Employer’ list on the left of the page. If you have added more than one employer to Basic PAYE Tools, you’ll need to select the one that the employee works for. This will take you to the ‘Employer details’ page.
4. Select the current tax year from the options at the top of the page.
5. Select the ‘Manage employees’ link from the menu on the left side of the page. This will take you to the ‘Manage employees’ page with a list of all employees for this employer.
6. Select the relevant employee from the list (you can only create an NVR for one employee at a time). This will take you to the ‘Employee details’ page.
7. Select the ‘National Insurance Number Verification Request (NVR)’ link from the menu on the left of the page. This will take you to a ‘National Insurance Number Verification Request (NVR)’ page.
8. Read the information on this page.
9. Select ‘Next’ for a confirmation that you have created an NVR for this employee.
10. Select ‘Next’ to finish the process and return to the ‘Employee details’ page.

You can create a National Insurance Number Verification Request (NVR) for another employee by repeating the process.

Send the NVRs to HMRC

You need to send the NVRs to HMRC as one submission after you’ve completed all of them.

1. On the ‘Employee details’ page, select the employer name in the ‘Navigation’ section of the left hand menu. This will take you to the ‘Employer details’ page.
2. Select the ‘View outstanding submissions’ link from the left hand menu. This will take you to the ‘Outstanding submission details’ page.
3. Select the ‘Send all outstanding submissions’ link on the bottom right of the page. This will take you to the ‘Submit data to HM Revenue & Customs’ page.
4. Read the information on this page.
5. Select ‘Next’ to go to the ‘Submission Authentication’ page.
6. Enter your Government Gateway user ID and password.
7. Select ‘Next’ to go to the ‘Submission status’ page, followed by the ‘Submission results’ page.

This page will give you a unique reference number, completing the NVR submission process.

Save this number for your records.

After you submit the NVRs

HMRC will update your PAYE Online account to either:

• verify a National Insurance number
• provide the correct National Insurance number

We cannot give you a timescale for this update, so you may need to check your account more than once.