PAYE64025 - employment maintenance: employment history: purpose and use of form P91

The purpose of form P91 is to establish a taxpayer’s employment history where

• You are unsure what a taxpayer has been doing since 6 April CY

Or

• There are gaps in employment of ten weeks or more

Form P91 can be issued

• In Function MS where a main source record is created
• Using LFC (Letters and Forms on Computer)

Or

• Manually

Employment maintenance staff initially deal with the issue of form P91. Where a form is issued for the purpose of restoring a cumulative code the case should not be put on BF. Format 2 of Function MR should, however, be updated to reflect issue of the form. For more information on the entry to be made see ‘Entries To Be Made Following Issue Of Form P91 (Action Guide)’ at PAYE64016.

When the form is returned you need to make various checks in addition to recording any employment information.

Address

If the address on the form has been amended, use TBS Function AMEND TAXPAYER ADDRESS to correct the address.

National Insurance Number

NINO Customer Validation Unit (CVU) has validating all NINOs on our databases, so that the correct NINO may be established, or a NINO be allocated, and entered on the taxpayer identification record. In turn, this will be passed to COP, and if appropriate SA. This work continues in respect of newly set up records.

However, in local offices you may have a complaint, MP enquiry or student loan case where

• The NINO on the taxpayer identification record, and therefore the COP record, should be replaced by a different NINO

Or

• The Temporary Reference number on the taxpayer identification record, and therefore the COP record, can be replaced by a NINO

Only in this circumstance can you contact CVU to initiate correction of the records. You cannot make that change

• Complete form (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000), which has a combination of tick boxes and text fields
• Fax the form to CVU (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

CVU will action the request within 48 hours. The form will not be returned to you unless there is a problem with carrying out your request. In that circumstance, a brief explanation will be attached to the form.

Note: Local offices also use form CVU1.V2 to ask CVU to merge duplicated taxpayer records in complaint, MP enquiry or student loan cases. CVU will not return the CVU1.V2 form where successful merge action has been taken, unless requested to do so or there is a problem with carrying out your request when a brief explanation will be attached to the form.

Pensions

Pass the papers to an appropriate officer who will take responsibility for further work on the form.

Date of Birth

Use TBS Function AMEND TAXPAYER DESIGNATORY DETAILS to enter the date of birth if not already held or if incorrect.

Contact Details

If a contact number is shown use TBS Function AMEND TAXPAYER DESIGNATORY DETAILS to add or update the contact number. You may wish to check Function NO to delete any old telephone numbers held on the COP record.

Other Employments

If other employments are shown use this information to decide which Processing Office should hold the main source record.

When considering restoring a cumulative code you must not take too narrow a view of the information on the form P91. Wherever possible accept the information provided avoiding further unnecessary enquiries. Where possible give the taxpayer the benefit of the doubt.

Staff who work on Employment Maintenance need to be aware that

• Taxpayers do not have to give an explanation of what they were doing if they were not working. Any given explanation should be accepted
• Where the ‘Not Earning’ box is ticked you should not check for a possible Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) claim unless you have evidence to suggest otherwise
• If the taxpayer has made an attempt to complete the form P91 you can restore a cumulative code providing any remaining unexplained gap does not exceed 10 consecutive weeks
• If the remaining gap in employment exceeds 10 consecutive weeks you should contact the taxpayer for the missing information

The form P91 can be destroyed when you have

• Completed all enquiries
• Entered all the information needed on the taxpayer’s employment history record
• Restored a cumulative code

Or

• Left on a Wk1 / Mth1 basis to review later

For more information about what to do when a completed form is received see ‘Receipt Of Form P91 (Action Guide)’ at PAYE64015.