Common Errors

Common errors and how to avoid them

Every year we reject Employer Annual Returns because they do not meet our Quality Standards for online Returns. You can help make sure that your 2007-08 Return is a success by avoiding the most common errors from 2006-07 Returns.

P14 SCON (Scheme Contracted Out Number)

This must be in the correct format - letter S, followed by 0 or 1 or 2 or 4 or 6 or 8 then six numbers followed by a letter.
It must be a genuine SCON, issued to you by the National Insurance Services to the Pensions Industry (NISPI).
The SCON field must be completed for every line with a NIC table letter of F, G, H, K, S or V. It must be omitted in all other cases.

P14 Earnings at the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) where earnings reach or exceed the LEL

Entry must be numeric and cannot be a negative amount. Entry must be whole pounds.
The value must be ‘0’ for NIC table letter X.
The entry at LEL must be greater than ‘0’ for the following NI table letters A, D, F, H, J, L, N, Q, R, S and V.
The entry must not be greater than the maximum value.

P14 Earnings above the Earnings Threshold (ET) up to and including the Upper Earnings Limit (UEL)

Entry must be numeric and cannot be a negative amount. Entry must be whole pounds and pence must be ignored.
The value must be zero (‘0’) for NIC table letter X.
Value must be greater than '0' when the Total of Employees and Employers Contributions Payable field is greater than 32p for the following NI Category letters: A, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, N, O, Q, R, S, V.
Value must be greater than ‘0’ if Employees Contributions Payable field is greater than 16p for the following NI Category letters: A, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, N, O, Q, R, S, V.
The entry must not be greater than the maximum value.

P14 employee's contributions payable

Entry must be numeric and cannot be a negative amount.
Must be ‘0’ for NIC Table letters C, W or X.
• The entry in this field must be equal to or less than the total contributions field for NIC table letter A, B, J, R, T or Q.

P14 NINO (National Insurance number)

National Insurance numbers must be in the format of two letters followed by six numbers followed by one letter in the range A-D or a space.
The first two letters must be one of the issued National Insurance Number prefixes.

SSP recovered (Statutory Sick Pay)

Entry must be numeric.
Must be equal to or less than the total of the 'statutory sick pay' associated with the P14s in this return.

P14 forename

This field should only contain alpha characters A-Z (upper or lower case), hyphen or apostrophe. Must not contain spaces or other invalid characters. First character must be an alpha character.
Do not use character ` for an apostrophe. Use ‘‘’ instead.

Total NIC (National Insurance Contributions)

Entry must be numeric.
This figure must equal the sum of 'total employee's and employer's contributions payable' from the P14s.

P14 Total of employee's and employer's contributions payable

Entry must be numeric.
If NIC table letter is X then this amount must be ‘0’.
The amount in this field must be equal to or greater than the amount shown in the Employees Contributions Payable field for the following NIC table letters A, B, J, R, T and Q.
The amount in this field must be equal to or greater than ‘0’ for the following NIC table letters: A, B, C, J, Q, R, T or W.

P14 employee's gender

Entry required if NINO not completed.
Must be 'male' or 'female'.

Authentication errors

A number of Returns were rejected at the Government Gateway because of authentication errors. The most common reasons were as follows:

Employers trying to send a Return online immediately after registration instead of waiting until they had activated the service.
Incorrect characters in the fields (for example, ‘O’ instead of ‘0’, ‘S’ instead of ‘5’, ‘Z’ instead of ‘2’).
Employers confusing the user ID (sent on a card by the Government Gateway) with the password or activation PIN.
Forgetting the password (chosen by the employer). Lost User ID, PIN and password can all be obtained by following the steps on the login page.
Incorrect recording of the PAYE reference. The PAYE reference must be sent as two separate fields; a three digit office numeral and the reference with no prefixing (hyphens or spaces). Do not repeat the three digit office numeral in the second employer reference field.
Using an old PAYE reference that has been cancelled.
Trying to use PAYE online to send a non PAYE Return.

Matching errors

We have also identified some non-Quality Standard errors that slow down the process of matching P14 information to individuals National Insurance records.

National Insurance Numbers - if you do not have the correct National Insurance Number, please leave the field blank and enter the date of birth and gender instead. Please do not use a ‘temporary’ number of your own design.
Employee surname - please do not add addition information, for example, ‘(staff)’ or ‘(Temp)’ to the surname field.
Category C - employers operating pension only schemes must not use National Insurance Category C on their P14s.They must use Category X instead.
Category X - employers must only use Category X for:
- a pension only scheme
- an employee paid below the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL)
- workers from abroad
- P14s produced by DWP to record benefits paid to customers.

Valid National Insurance number prefixes

Valid National Insurance prefixes for 2007-08 are:

AA, AB, AE, AH, AK, AL, AM, AP, AR, AS, AT, AW, AX, AY, AZ, BA, BB, BE, BH, BK, BL, BM, BT, CA, CB, CE, CH, CK, CL, CR, EA, EB, EE, EH, EK, EL, EM, EP, ER, ES, ET, EW, EX, EY, EZ, GY, HA, HB, HE, HH, HK, HL, HM, HP, HR, HS, HT, HW, HX, HY, HZ, JA, JB, JC, JE, JG, JH, JJ, JK, JL, JM, JN, JP, JR, JS, JT, JW, JX, JY, JZ, KA, KB, KE, KH, KK, KL, KM, KP, KR, KS, KT, KW, KX, KY, KZ, LA, LB, LE, LH, LK, LL, LM, LP, LR, LS, LT, LW, LX, LY, LZ, MA, MW, MX, NA, NB, NE, NH, NL, NM, NP, NR, NS, NW, NX, NY, NZ, OA, OB, OE, OH, OK, OL, OM, OP, OR, OS, OX, PA, PB, PC, PE, PG, PH, PJ, PK, PL, PM, PN, PP, PR, PS, PT, PW, PX, PY, RA, RB, RE, RH, RK, RM, RP, RR, RS, RT, RW, RX, RY, RZ, SA, SB, SC, SE, SG, SH, SJ, SK, SL, SM, SN, SP, SR, SS, ST, SW, SX, SY, SZ, TA, TB, TE, TH, TK, TL, TM, TP, TR, TS, TT, TW, TX, TY, TZ, WA, WB, WE, WK, WL, WM, WP, YA, YB, YE, YH, YK, YL, YM, YP, YR, YS, YT, YW, YX, YY, YZ, ZA, ZB, ZE, ZH, ZK, ZL, ZM, ZP, ZR, ZS, ZT, ZW, ZX, ZY

The characters D, F, I, Q, U and V are not used as either the first or second letter of a NINO prefix.