Verify Your Identity (CH) – anyone in the same situation?

[Moses3d]

Hello everyone!

In July 2025 I completed the Verify Your Identity process with CH and got my personal code. Today for some reason I checked the details of my company on the CH website (in the company information section) and to my amazement I saw that both me and my other director (also verified in July) have until November 2026 to verify our identities (both in Directors and PSC sections). I don't quite get it – how is it possible that the same authority that got me verified has not updated its own records? Has anyone come across the same situation? What didn't I do (if I didn't)? Also, I got verified as Director (if I remember correctly) but do I also need to verify my identity as PSC separately? I'm not sure there's any help article on this on the CH website or I couldn't find it.
Please share your experience.
Thank you!

 

[Mark T Jones]

Yes, you need to individually verify ID as both director and PSC for every relevant business

 

[Lisa Thomas]

new rules brought in - see here: https://www.google.com/search?q=new...g3NDA0ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[Frank the Insurance guy]

Same has happened to me. I think you need to link your personal verification that you have done to your Companies House account at a specific time - I have recently got an email to say that I need to link it to verify between the dates of 10th Feb and 23rd Feb.....So I am waiting until 10th Feb to do it.

 

[Moses3d]

Same has happened to me. I think you need to link your personal verification that you have done to your Companies House account at a specific time - I have recently got an email to say that I need to link it to verify between the dates of 10th Feb and 23rd Feb.....So I am waiting until 10th Feb to do it.

Thank you for sharing, Frank. Do you have any idea of the mechanism to link it to CH? I got the confirmation that the verification was successful and received the code (saved all this info, of course), but a) there was no indication whatsoever that this code must be linked to the account (hence my assumption that it was linked automatically); and b) in my CH company account I don't find any link/button to link the two. Moreover, the same applies to the PSC verification results. Anyone knows how to link the verification details and the account? Any success doing it? If yes, please could you share which steps you took to achieve this – where to go and what link/button to follow. Will be much appreciated!

 

[Moses3d]

new rules brought in - see here:

Lisa, thank you. You're right, the links ABOUT the ID verification do lead to the EXPLANATION of what it is about and when and who, but they do not explain how to connect your verified identity to your account, unfortunately. They do not explain the very mechanism of doing so, this is what I mean.

 

[DWS]

Thank you for sharing, Frank. Do you have any idea of the mechanism to link it to CH? I got the confirmation that the verification was successful and received the code (saved all this info, of course), but a) there was no indication whatsoever that this code must be linked to the account (hence my assumption that it was linked automatically); and b) in my CH company account I don't find any link/button to link the two. Moreover, the same applies to the PSC verification results. Anyone knows how to link the verification details and the account? Any success doing it? If yes, please could you share which steps you took to achieve this – where to go and what link/button to follow. Will be much appreciated!

I can only comment as an Accountant who does the Company House filings for my clients,
My clients have completed the ID verification and passed on the codes to me, when I come to submit the annual Confirmation Statement I then input the code where prompted, and it shows that the Director has been verified,
What I did not realise was that I also needed to put the code in for a PSC, I thought wrongly that if the Director was also a PSC that inputting the code once would suffice but sadly not, I have now had to go back and verify the PSCs of the Companies where I have already verified them as Directors.
They don’t like making things easy, and I can see a lot of people thinking they have completed the process correctly when they have not.

 

[Moses3d]

I can only comment as an Accountant who does the Company House filings for my clients,
My clients have completed the ID verification and passed on the codes to me, when I come to submit the annual Confirmation Statement I then input the code where prompted, and it shows that the Director has been verified,
What I did not realise was that I also needed to put the code in for a PSC, I thought wrongly that if the Director was also a PSC that inputting the code once would suffice but sadly not, I have now had to go back and verify the PSCs of the Companies where I have already verified them as Directors.
They don’t like making things easy, and I can see a lot of people thinking they have completed the process correctly when they have not.

This is exactly what I faced: I wrongly thought that identifying myself as a Director would automatically identify me as a PSC (since this is how it is in the particulars of the company and the Confirmation Statement for that matter), besides I assumed that the very process of ID verification would imply that this verification would automatically be linked to the company's account (quite logically, I guess, as otherwise why would you identify me in the first place). So now I have to identify myself as a PSC and somehow find a way to link the two codes to the account (no idea how – the thing is that I completed the ID process in July long before it became mandatory, and when filing my Confirmation Statement in November 2025 I was not asked for that code at all (actually, this only added to my belief that the verification status was somehow saved in the system otherwise they would ask me for the code). I wonder if I now need to wait until November when my regular Statement is due to input both codes and therefore link them to the profile, or there are other ways of doing so (linking I mean) before the regular Statement date... You're right, they don't make things easier. The idea may be a sound and reasonable one but the implementation is lacking clarity, I think. Thank you. And please, if by any chance you come across a way of linking the codes to the company while in between the two Statements, let us all know (I think I'm not alone here in this journey).

 

[DWS]

This is exactly what I faced: I wrongly thought that identifying myself as a Director would automatically identify me as a PSC (since this is how it is in the particulars of the company and the Confirmation Statement for that matter), besides I assumed that the very process of ID verification would imply that this verification would automatically be linked to the company's account (quite logically, I guess, as otherwise why would you identify me in the first place). So now I have to identify myself as a PSC and somehow find a way to link the two codes to the account (no idea how – the thing is that I completed the ID process in July long before it became mandatory, and when filing my Confirmation Statement in November 2025 I was not asked for that code at all (actually, this only added to my belief that the verification status was somehow saved in the system otherwise they would ask me for the code). I wonder if I now need to wait until November when my regular Statement is due to input both codes and therefore link them to the profile, or there are other ways of doing so (linking I mean) before the regular Statement date... You're right, they don't make things easier. The idea may be a sound and reasonable one but the implementation is lacking clarity, I think. Thank you. And please, if by any chance you come across a way of linking the codes to the company while in between the two Statements, let us all know (I think I'm not alone here in this journey).

You don’t need 2 codes you only need one, the same code for you as Director and PSC, you just need to input the same code twice.
For Director you add the code when submitting the next Confirmation Statement, for the PSC the date you have to input it depends, depending on circumstances it may be your birthday.
If the you go on your Company at Companies House it should tell you the date you need to input the code under the ‘people’ tab

 

[Moses3d]

You don’t need 2 codes you only need one, the same code for you as Director and PSC, you just need to input the same code twice.
For Director you add the code when submitting the next Confirmation Statement, for the PSC the date you have to input it depends, depending on circumstances it may be your birthday.
If the you go on your Company at Companies House it should tell you the date you need to input the code under the ‘people’ tab

Thank you for clarification! So I don't need to identify myself as a PSC in addition to the already done verification, that's a relief. As for when to input (and where): on the CH public page for my company in the People tab I have the dates by which I need to verify – both for Directors and PSCs in November 2026 when my Statement is due. So, if I understand you correctly, when filing the Statement I will have to input the code twice – once for myself as a Director and the second time for myself as a PSC. But this can be done only when I file the new Statement, not earlier, right? And there is no other way to link the codes to the profile before that...

 

[DWS]

Thank you for clarification! So I don't need to identify myself as a PSC in addition to the already done verification, that's a relief. As for when to input (and where): on the CH public page for my company in the People tab I have the dates by which I need to verify – both for Directors and PSCs in November 2026 when my Statement is due. So, if I understand you correctly, when filing the Statement I will have to input the code twice – once for myself as a Director and the second time for myself as a PSC. But this can be done only when I file the new Statement, not earlier, right? And there is no other way to link the codes to the profile before that...

No nothing to do until the verification dates that are given by CH

 

[Moses3d]

No nothing to do until the verification dates that are given by CH

OK, thank you. The same code twice when filing the Statement, understood. At least no need to re-verify myself as a PSC for the same business. This is the bright side . Thank you very much indeed!

 

[TBLZ]

I also needed to put the code in for a PSC, I thought wrongly that if the Director was also a PSC that inputting the code once would suffice but sadly not

Typical HMRC, the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing, but they compensate by wasting time and money.

On a loosely related note, I used to be able to get my employees' tax codes from our online HMRC account, but no longer. As HMRC only send the tax code notices by snail mail to us ("Why use email when you can waste £1.65 of public money on this?" seems to be a common reasoning for HMRC as well as the NHS) and Royal Mail are incapable of delivering our paper mail on time or at all, as the case might be, it is pot luck whether our tax codes are accurate at any time.

Rant over, sorry, I just had to vent.

 

[Angel123]

Just bumped into this thread and realised that I am in exactly the same position as @Moses3d. Thanks to this thread I now understand that I need to verify my directors and PSC as two, separate actions.

Frankly, I just cannot believe how complicated this whole verification process has been made by CH. Its almost as if the objective was to make it as hard (rather than as robust) as possible.

 

[fisicx]

I didn’t find it at all complicated. Was very quick and simple.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I never thought I'd be defending Companies House (and I may yet have my own moan) but for ID verification to be truly effective it really needs to be done piece by piece to avoid just carrying over duff information

On the other hand, they do seem to have been taken by surprise by the fact that there are queries& glitches.

And they f*cked up my CS filing, making me spend 20 minutes on hold to resolve their problem

 

[Ozzy]

Frankly, I just cannot believe how complicated this whole verification process has been made by CH. Its almost as if the objective was to make it as hard (rather than as robust) as possible.

To defend Companies House here, it has been made complicated by the law makers in Government who overcomplicated Director/PSC/Shareholder legislation, and then Companies House are told to 'make it work' with broken tools (legislation).

One day, we might get some intelligent, forward-thinking people in the civil service to create robust legislation that just works

 

[Newchodge]

Typical HMRC, the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing, but they compensate by wasting time and money.

On a loosely related note, I used to be able to get my employees' tax codes from our online HMRC account, but no longer. As HMRC only send the tax code notices by snail mail to us ("Why use email when you can waste £1.65 of public money on this?" seems to be a common reasoning for HMRC as well as the NHS) and Royal Mail are incapable of delivering our paper mail on time or at all, as the case might be, it is pot luck whether our tax codes are accurate at any time.

Rant over, sorry, I just had to vent.

Doesn't your payroll software download them? i run a payroll bureau and all of my clients' employees' tax codes are downloaded.

 

[TBLZ]

It does have the facility to do that, but there are never any new notices there, whereas notices are sent in the post to employees (and apparently to us, but Royal Mail often has difficulties locating our large, visible letterbox).

 

[Angel123]

Quick update, just done my Companies House confirmation statement and entered the verification codes for directors without a problem. Assumed I could do the same, on the same form and in the same way, for PSC.

But no -

PSC identity verification status This overview shows the 14 day period in which each PSC needs to provide their verification details, and who has done it already. You can only provide details for one PSC at a time. You cannot request an extension for a PSC before their 14 day period has started, or after their verification deadline has passed.​

So it looks like I have to logon again in a couple of weeks to complete the palaver, one PSC at a time.

 

[fisicx]

So it looks like I have to logon again in a couple of weeks to complete the palaver, one PSC at a time.

As it should be. It’s to slow down dodgy directors and allow the necessary checks to be made.