I have an A8 national, working & registered, but his wife has no NINO as yet. This has been delayed due to missed appointments. A new sort out an interview letter has been sent by the Revenue to the NI people but they say there is currently an 8 week turnaround. They say it is not possible to make interim payments in this situation. Anyone any experience of this or know if this is right?

It's certainly not right, but in my experience this is how it happens. TCO can't seem to process a claim until both partners have been allocated NINOs and there appears to be no system for making interim or manual payments while wating for allocation of a NINO. Has your client been advised to seek hardship payments from local CREC? I know they're not much, but they might help. I would also advise writing a strong letter to local MP highlighting the problem because surely HMRC can't resist the pressure much longer and will have to make their systems more "claimant-centred" as the treasury sub-committee has recommended in their report published today.