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To work and pay tax in England, you need a National Insurance number. If you don’t have one you have to pay a horrendous 40% of your earnings in emergency tax! As a good and law-abiding immigrant, I called the Job Centre in July last year and asked for an NI interview. I was told I couldn’t book an appointment as I had also made claims for tax credits, and child and housing benefits. Your benefit claims have to be processed before you can get an appointment for your interview.

I realise now that coming from Sweden I have been spoiled rotten by our state. We have a central computer system somewhere in the heart of our nation where all citizens are registered. If you give birth to a child it is registered in the Big Comp, and within a couple of weeks you begin to receive child benefit for said infant without as much as signing a paper. If you claim housing benefit, the paper-shuffler at the benefits agency will type your details into the Desktop Comp, which is magically connected to the Big Comp. Within minutes they get access to your tax codes, your income, and any other vital information needed to process your claim. Piece of cake! A minimum of hassle, no waste of time, and within a couple of weeks your money is paid into your account.

When I knew I was going to move countries, I did my homework to find out if I would have the same rights in the UK as I did in Sweden. Transparency rules for EU nationals meant that I’d basically be entitled to the same benefits here, albeit calculated according to UK rates. Seemed like a fair deal to me. What I didn’t realise was that everything that is done swiftly and efficiently in Sweden takes forever in this country. Why? Well, so far the only plausible reason I have come up with is that it keeps a great many people busy shuffling papers and being rude to foreigners.

Three weeks ago, after thirteen months in this country, I finally had my interview! I must admit that I didn’t arrive in high spirits, but the man at the Hounslow Job Centre office was fantastic! He even apologised for the ludicrousness of the system and filed a report of complaint on my behalf. Today I got my red and blue NI card, so Hey Guys! I’m one of you now! I’m so excited I can hardly type!!

Who knows, next I may even get my child benefit sorted…

//Evalena

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