Taxing Mix-Up Leads to £450 Monthly Bill for Unwitting Job Swapper
In a bewildering blunder, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) mistakenly linked a person's national insurance number to that of another individual. The error has resulted in the taxpayer being taxed as if they have two jobs, earning double their actual income and paying an additional £450 per month in tax and NI contributions.
The issue arose during a tax code review after the taxpayer had changed jobs last year. HMRC's system mistakenly matched employment data to that of another woman who shared similar personal details, including name, address, and date of birth. The National Insurance numbers remained unaffected, but the consequences have been far-reaching.
After waiting 90 minutes for an adviser, the individual was told that it had not yet received around to resolving the issue. Thankfully, HMRC has since disentangled the two individuals and will refund the overpaid tax in their next payslip, along with £75 in compensation.
While the situation is concerning, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) noted that a data breach notification was not required as only basic details – name, address, and date of birth – were shared. The ICO's guidance suggests that this would typically be enough to trigger such notifications.
In a bewildering blunder, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) mistakenly linked a person's national insurance number to that of another individual. The error has resulted in the taxpayer being taxed as if they have two jobs, earning double their actual income and paying an additional £450 per month in tax and NI contributions.
The issue arose during a tax code review after the taxpayer had changed jobs last year. HMRC's system mistakenly matched employment data to that of another woman who shared similar personal details, including name, address, and date of birth. The National Insurance numbers remained unaffected, but the consequences have been far-reaching.
After waiting 90 minutes for an adviser, the individual was told that it had not yet received around to resolving the issue. Thankfully, HMRC has since disentangled the two individuals and will refund the overpaid tax in their next payslip, along with £75 in compensation.
While the situation is concerning, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) noted that a data breach notification was not required as only basic details – name, address, and date of birth – were shared. The ICO's guidance suggests that this would typically be enough to trigger such notifications.
I mean, what even is going on here?! 
A mix-up of epic proportions! £450 a month? That's insane! 
How do you even mess up something like this? 
Poor person, all because of a simple name and address swap 
. Glad HMRC stepped in to fix it though, and £75 compensation is sweet 
. Data protection laws are in place for a reason, so I hope this incident leads to some changes 
. The ICO's stance on data breach notifications is still a bit fuzzy for me 
... but overall, just glad no one's bank account got hit 
I mean, come on HMRC! How do you even mess up something like that? It's just basic info like name, address, and DOB - shouldn't it have been easy to match without causing double the tax bill for someone 
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...and the fact that it took 90 minutes to get sorted with an adviser is just ridiculous. I mean, what's the point of even having a system in place if you're gonna make mistakes like this? And £75 compensation doesn't really cut it after losing almost half your monthly income...should've been a lot more from HMRC 
. It's just one of those mistakes that can happen, but still, it's not exactly what you want to deal with at 9 am on a Monday morning 
.
what if it was someone who really needed the money to pay their bills or something 
so at least HMRC is refunding the overpaid tax and paying £75 in compensation, thats a start 
i hope they get their system sorted out ASAP 
So they just linked someone's tax code to another person's because they had the same name, address, and birthday... like, what are the chances?! 
like, isn't that the whole point of having similar info?! 
. The fact that HMRC was able to correct their mistake without any major issues is a positive, though - at least they were able to rectify the situation before it got out of hand 
. It's crazy that HMRC made such a simple mistake and it took them 90 minutes to sort it out 
. On the bright side, they're refunding her overpaid tax and paying her back £75 in compensation 
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. Glad they sorted it out in the end and gave the poor soul some compensation tho, 75 quid is nice 
. Can't believe their system just matched two people with the same basic info, though - that's just lazy 
. On the bright side, maybe this means HMRC will start using a more accurate system... or not 
I mean, can you believe it? £450 per month? That's crazy! 