Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 May 2021
409. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Social Protection if the process for widows to obtain new PPS numbers or reactivate their old PPS numbers on the passing of their husbands can be improved in order to provide a better service for them; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that there have been some delays for processing such requests; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22714/21]
View answerUnder previous taxation law, the husband of a married couple was considered the assessable spouse and the wife was considered a dependant of the husband. Accordingly, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Revenue) allocated the husband’s Revenue and Social Insurance (RSI) number to the wife and appended a “W” to the end, as a second check character, so that they could be separately identified but linked for joint assessment.
The Finance Act 1993 provided that either spouse could be the assessable spouse, and the practice of allocating “Level W” numbers ceased. From then on, all persons were allocated individual, unique numbers. However, it was decided, at that stage, not to ask all individuals with “Level W” numbers to change them until there was an actual need to do so.
The Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) was introduced in the Social Welfare Act 1998, replacing the RSI Number, and my Department was given legislative responsibility for allocating and managing these new numbers. In practice, the RSI numbers in existence were retained and became PPSNs, including “Level W” numbers. In other words, Level W numbers are PPSNs in their own right and it is not the case that any person's PPSN is linked with another person.
It is the case that the Office of the Revenue Commissioners request people with “Level W” numbers to change them once they need to engage with them on taxation matters. The process of replacing a “Level W” number is relatively straightforward. The process is undertaken by staff of the Client Identity Services (CIS) section my Department who can be contacted by phone at LoCall 1890 927 999 or 071 967 2616 or by email at cis.purges@welfare.ie.
In recent weeks my Department has re-assigned resources to deal with a build-up of these cases. This will result in improved processing times and will reduce the number of cases on hand.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
