Mixed-up National Insurance records leave worker paying for stranger’s job.

In a bureaucratic bungle that would be comical if it weren’t so costly, a UK taxpayer has been left £450 poorer every month after HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) confused her identity with a stranger’s. The mix-up, which began in November, saw the tax authority link the victim's National Insurance number to another woman's employment details, effectively taxing her for two jobs she didn't have.

The victim, identified only as a reader writing to a consumer advice column, discovered she could see the stranger's entire employment history—where she worked, her payroll number, and her earnings. "HMRC is now taxing me as if I have two jobs, earning twice as much," she lamented. The error triggered a cascade of financial pain, including a "tax adjustment" for unpaid tax from the previous year that she didn't actually owe.

System Failure

The root cause? A data matching error during a routine tax code review. Because the two women shared "some" personal details, HMRC's systems conflated them into a single entity. The fallout was immediate for the victim, but the resolution was agonizingly slow. She reported waiting 90 minutes on the phone only to be told advisors hadn't "got round to it yet."

• The Fix: HMRC has now disentangled the records and promised a refund in the next payslip, along with a paltry £75 in compensation.
• Data Breach? alarming, HMRC claims this does not constitute a reportable data breach because the stranger's name and address were not explicitly shared—despite her salary and payroll info being visible.

A Warning to All

This case serves as a chilling reminder of the fragility of digital identity. For one woman, a computer glitch turned a monthly payslip into a monthly penalty. While the money will be returned, the trust in the system may take much longer to restore.