Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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303. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of women that currently share a PPSN with their spouses; and the efforts being made to proactively issue these women with new PPS numbers before there is a need for them to apply for one in the case of death of a partner or divorce from a partner. [39523/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Under previous tax 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 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 (PPS Number) 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 PPS Numbers, including “Level W” numbers. In other words, Level W numbers are PPS Numbers in their own right and it is not the case that any person shares a PPS Number with another person.

It is the case that Revenue 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 and there is no need for the person to attend any office or to queue for service. As part of the process, my Department verifies the identity of the individual, secures their consent, purges the existing number and replaces it with either a new number or one that the individual may have had prior to marriage. In addition, all pre-existing records relating to that individual are transferred over to the new number.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.