When supplying MCR submissions, we’d like to stress the importance of populating a valid National Insurance (NI) number for new members when setting them up. 

All UK residents (or former UK residents), who are eligible to be assessed for Tax and National Insurance deductions, will have an NI number. 

There are some circumstances where members may not have or know their own NI number and, in these circumstances, you’ll be unable to set up the new record. Instead, we advise you to contact our Employer Support team who will set up a new member record manually.

Once the record is created, you’ll be supplied with a Teachers’ Pensions reference number and an Administrative National Insurance Number for the member’s record. These must be provided on all future MCR submissions for the member.

If you or the member subsequently receives a valid NI number from HMRC, this can then be submitted onto the MCR file (when supplied with the Teachers’ Pensions reference number). This would replace the Administrative NI Number on the member’s record.

You can find more details on pages 29 and 30 of the MCR User Guide (PDF, 2.2 MB) (This link opens in a new window).