To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail (i) the advice for people applying for the High Street scheme who are told their National Insurance number has already been used; (ii) the advice for people who receive no confirmation email after applying, nor from the help email address after submitting a query; and (iii) whether people experiencing these kinds of problems, and those who have been the victim of fraud, will be granted an extension to their application deadline.

The Department was aware there were a number of instances where some applicants National Insurance Numbers (NINO) were used by another applicant during the application process. A process was put in place to resolve this issue to ensure eligible applicants were able to make an application. The process involved the setting up a spendlocalNINO mailbox for members or the public, MLAs and others to make direct contact with the Department. After investigation it was found that in 41% of the cases the NINO had been used by the person who contacted the Department claiming someone else had used their NINO. The remaining 59% were contacted and asked to confirm their NINO. In the cases were an applicant made a mistake when entering their NINO the application was deleted. This provided for both applicants to apply for the scheme using their correct NINOs. In cases were both applicants confirmed that the NINO belonged to them, both were asked to provide proof of their NINO and the incorrect application was deleted.

The Department has and continues to receive a significant volume of correspondence relating to the High Street Scheme and in order to address these as quickly as possible a number of bespoke mailboxes were set up and made available as contact points for MLAs, members of the public and others. This included a separate mailbox for MLAs to raise constituent queries and a mailbox for applicants who were experiencing difficulties making their application due to the NINO issue as outlined above. Each separate mailbox also contained a detailed automated response and a link to the FAQs, which helped answer a number of queries. In addition a direct freephone telephone service was made available as a contact point for general enquiries as well as an automated helpline for card activation and a customer services line for card activation issues and reporting lost or stolen cards. Any victims of fraud should contact the Department’s Fraud and Raising Concerns Branch on (028) 9025 7466 or email raising.concerns@economy-ni.gov.uk.

Finally, to ensure as many people as possible could avail of the Scheme, I announced on 9 December 2021 that the spend period for the High Street Scheme was being extended for a further five days from the 14th to the 19th December 2021.