About employers

New employers need to register with HMRC. There is guidance for employers on the Gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/business-tax/paye

Employers will deduct tax and National Insurance from the wages they pay out. They will calculate the Employer’s National Insurance Contributions due and pay this to HMRC each month.

Unfortunately, a small minority of employers fail to do this. If you are concerned that your employer may not be paying your National Insurance Contributions to HMRC, a low-key way of checking that your contributions are getting through would be to ask for a pension forecast from the Pensions Service. You could check to see if you have been given the right number of year’s contributions. There is information about state pension forecasts on the Gov.uk website at https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-statement.

If you have more serious concerns, you will need to contact HMRC direct and ask them to check your contributions record. You will need to provide you National Insurance number, and if possible, your employer’s PAYE reference.

If your employer is not paying National Insurance to HMRC, then this could affect your benefit rights. If you have payslips showing tax and National Insurance deductions and P60 forms showing your total pay, tax and National Insurance for each tax year then you can ask HMRC to credit you with the contributions deducted from your wages. This may take some time to resolve.

If you do not have payslips and the correct tax forms P60 (or P45) it may be appropriate to write to your employer to formally ask for them.

If you have evidence that you are an employee, you could write to HMRC advising of circumstances and ask for confirmation that you have no liability.

In extreme cases, you might need to contact the Tax Evasion line.

If you do not have evidence that tax and National Insurance has been deducted from your income, or if it is unclear that you are an employee, the position may be difficult to resolve and you should take advice. If you are on low income, you could contact TaxAid for help.