Two women called Jean Price given the same NI number - but only ONE gets a pension

Mrs Price, a law-abiding great-grandmother who has worked all her life, found to her horror that a woman with the same name and date of birth had also been allocated her National Insurance number and had been using it legitimately for years because of the mix-up.

National Insurance nightmare … the Timperley Jean Price, left, and her Stockport counterpart

The details of the other Jean Price, who lives eight miles away in Timperley, Greater Manchester, are now the only ones which the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) recognise.

This means that Mrs Price, from Stockport, cannot claim her pension because she does not have her own number.

Mrs Price worked in a cotton mill, sweet factory and as a kitchen porter in addition to raising six children.

She has had her pension cut off for the past five months and says this has left her and her disabled husband Alan, 56, penniless.

The couple had been living on her pension and a carer's allowance but both of these have been cut while an investigation is carried out.

The couple recently had their telephone disconnected because they could not pay the bill.

Mrs Price said she was in 'complete shock' when her pension was stopped.

'But I was even more worried when two official fraud investigators came up to interview me. Eventually they discovered that I shared the same number as another lady with the same name living in Greater Manchester.

'We can't cope financially. We are living hand to mouth.'

Both women began work at the age of 15 in 1962 and would have been issued with separate NI numbers.

The conflict apparently started when, after taking the married name of Price, one of them returned to work after having children and was issued with the NI number of her namesake.

The Timperley Jean Price, a mother of three, said she had also suffered over the mix-up.

Although she now receives a pension of around £40 a week her husband Rod, 61, was initially hauled in for questioning over allegations of fraud.

She said: 'It's been a nightmare from start to finish and I feel bad that I am receiving my pension while my namesake has been left without.

'It's very worrying because we might not have been paying the correct tax or even overpaying. I think those in charge have got some questions to answer.'

The case raises questions over whether other workers have lost their National Insurance number because of a similar mix-up.

Mrs Price's MP Ann Coffey has called for an immediate investigation over how two women came to be issued with the same NI number.

A DWP spokesman said: 'Any dispute over National Insurance numbers and National Insurance contributions is taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.

'Depending on the outcome, any entitlement would be backdated. However, the receipt of an existing means-tested benefit can often reduce or extinguish payments.'