Liverpool - Documents – National Insurance Number

The National Insurance Number is a number that identifies you in the UK and it’s used for tax/benefits purposes. This means that you will need it most of the time if you are looking for a job or claiming benefits.
This number is strictly personal and will follow you for all your life. If you leave England and come back, your NIN will remain the same.

To apply for it you have first to call Jobcentre Plus at 0845 600 0643 from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm Monday to Friday. They will verify that you actually need a NIN and will fix you an appointment in the nearest Jobcentre in order to submit your request (you’ll have to provide your address).
If your English is not sufficient for the interview one-to-one, you can request an interpreter.

The Jobcentre Plus in Liverpool that deals with NIN is situated at 249. St Mary's Rd - Garston, Liverpool, L19 and can be easily reached by bus although it’s outside the city centre.

All you have to present during the interview is your passport/national identity card and any document that will help you prove your identity and residency in the UK. Very useful are rental contract, job offers etc. You’ll be provided a NIN even if you cannot prove residency or work, as long as you are eligible to live in the UK.
Once you finish the interview, a document will be provided you, where it is stated that you attended that interview. The actual NIN card will be sent to you by post at the address you have provided to the interviewer.

Your NIN will be asked anytime you start a new regular job, as it is used to calculate the taxes you are going to pay, or when you claim benefits, in order to check how much in taxes you have paid in the past.

For further info you can visit the DirectGov web site.

Liverpool – How to get there – Ferries

If you are in Ireland, you can even choose to reach Liverpool by ferry, with the advantage that this time you can carry your car with you (if you have one, or need one). Liverpool is connected daily both to Dublin and Belfast and it takes 7/8 hours to reach your destination, with favourable weather conditions. When I did my Dublin-Liverpool crossing, the sea was so rough that we had to reach another location on the English coast and then travel by bus to our home. Luckily I’m not sea-sick!

When you finally get to Liverpool, your landing point might very. If you’re coming from Dublin, you’ll land at Brocklebank Dock, which is north of the centre, so, if you do not have a car, you’ll need a cab or a bus to get to your final destination. If you’re coming from Belfast, you’ll actually land in Birkenhead, just on the other side of the river Mersey, opposite the famous Albert’s Dock. From here, apart from the usual taxi or bus, you can reach Liverpool via ferry (again! But this time you travel with MerseyFerries) or train from the nearby Birkenhead Hamilton Square rail station.

For info about timetables and fares, you can check both P&O Irish Sea Ferries and Norfolk Ferries.

Liverpool – How to get there – train

If you decide to reach Liverpool via train, it’s most probable you will end up at Liverpool Lime Street Station, that represents the main rail hub of the town. The station is located in the city centre, just at the end of Lime Street, opposite St George’s Hall. From here you can easily reach all the destinations in town. You can find the bus and taxi stops just outside the station or you can simply walk anywhere in the city centre.

These are the operating companies that serve this station:
East Midlands Trains operates express services to Norwich via Sheffield and Nottingham.
First TransPennine Express operates express services to Scarborough via Leeds and York.
London Midland operates a half hourly service to Birmingham.
Northern Rail operates local services to Blackpool North, Manchester, Preston, Warrington Bank Quay and Wigan North Western.
Virgin Trains operates an hourly express service to London Euston.

At the moment the station is under major redevelopment works, so the entrance on Gloucester Street will remain closed until spring 2010.

Liverpool – How to get there – flights 2

If you don’t have the chance to land directly at Liverpool airport, the best alternative is to choose Manchester as your destination. This airport is situated at almost 60 km from Liverpool, and you can find direct connections to the city.
Once you get there, you can choose to reach Liverpool via train or coach.

If you prefer the train, you just have to reach the station inside Manchester airport. There is a direct connection with Liverpool Lime street station that runs every hour (tickets from £11). You can check fares and timetables at National Rail Enquiries. The journey takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

If you opt for the coach, you can board on National Express or Excel Coaches. Both start from the bus station in the airport, but while Excel stops directly in front of Lime Street Station, National Express arrives at the bus station (still not very far from Lime Street). If you need a taxi to get to your final destination, you’ll find plenty of them in both locations. Also note that travelling with National Express is pretty faster (and a bit cheaper £6.30 vs £6.70 for Excel), as they take just 50 minutes to get to Liverpool, while Excel Coaches needs 1 hour and a half.

Liverpool – How to get there – Flights

It’s pretty easy to get to Liverpool by airplane, and quite convenient as well!

First of all, the city has its own airport, the John Lennon (what else!) which is located a few km (14) south-east of the city centre (just next to Speke). The runway is just by the river, I find it wonderful to land and see plenty of water below.

It’s a small airport, but surprisingly well connected to the rest of the world. Apart from Ryanair and Easyjet, also KLM flies from here with connections to the US, South America, Africa, Middle and Far East. Being petite, it is also welcoming and has a relaxed atmosphere, usually not much rush or queues too long. If you still want to have a dedicated service at the controls, you can purchase a fast lane ticket that will allow you to join a special queue and be a priority guest of her Majesty. And just for 3 pounds! For personal experience, no point using it, unless you are really in a hurry.
Also, a lovely lady will be happy to provide you with a plastic bag for your liquids if it happened you forgot it.
I always found this airport very comfortable, even when I forgot to get my boarding card and everybody from the staff helped me solve the issue (check-in, controls, gate). Everybody was so helpful that I still had one hour left before boarding.

As for reaching it, its closeness to the city centre allows an incredible variety of choices. You can get a Taxi (less than 15 pounds), your own car, or even the bicycle, because, yes, there is even a bicycle lockers area in the car parking open 24/7. You can leave there your beloved during your travels and get it back when you return. All for just a deposit of 20 pounds (Deposit returned when you give back the locker key).

Or you can choose to go by bus, which is the cheapest way (unless you like cycling). The ticket is 2 pounds and you just have to choose the bus you need. For the city centre, you can jump on the Arriva Airlink 500 (it makes only two stops, for the coach station and Lime Street Rail station) or numbers 80A, 81A, 82A, 86A or N86 for the night bus. These last ones are city buses, there are plenty of stops you can take advantage of, so they can get you very, very close to where you actually need to go). Tickets can be bought onboard and mind that the journey time can vary sensibly depending on the hour (20 min at night up to an hour during peak times) so plan well.
If you want to go by train, the disadvantage is that you can get as far as the Liverpool South Parkway and then you have to get the bus link to the airport. The journey with the bus link is about 10 minutes and it comes almost every 20 minutes.

Hope you will find these info useful. Come back soon to see how else you can get to Liverpool!

Liverpool – general info

Up there in the North-West of England, where the river Mersey meets the sea, there lies the city of Liverpool. Once the major port of UK, bombed many times during the second world war, Liverpool has gone through a countless crisis, and has always been able to rise again, more beautiful than ever.

It counts almost 450,000 inhabitants only in the Metropolitan borough, but the number grows up to 820,000 if we consider the whole urban area, making it the ninth biggest city in the UK.
The official language is obviously English, although Liverpool is famous for its proper accent and dialect, called Scouse, which can make communication a bit difficult at the beginning, especially if you’re used to the Queen’s English. Anyway, a bit of practice and patience will be enough. Furthermore, despite any rumour about English people, Scousers, or officially Liverpudlians, are really friendly and talkative, so you should have no problem at all making new friends and practicing this peculiar language.

You can get here with all sorts of transport. Liverpool is served by its own airport, there’s Manchester airport at an hour distance, ferries to and from Ireland, as well as trains, coaches and motorways that connect the city to Scotland, Wales or almost any other location in England.

Currency here is the British Pound and the economy relies strongly on services (banks, call centres, public offices, etc.) tourism, which has increased significantly in the last few years, as well as entertainment. Mind that Liverpool is a really young city, with almost 40% of the population under 30. This implies that there’s a huge offer of pubs, clubs, restaurant of any kind and at reasonable prices. Also Liverpool hosts two impressive universities and welcomes thousands of students each year.Although the recent economic recovery, a few areas of town are listed among the poorest in UK, making them an undesirable place to live, especially for crime rates and social issues.

Climate is the ‘so called’ temperate, which means that temperature does not fall below zero even in winter. Unfortunately it doesn’t raise either above 20 Celsius on average in summer as well... so mild winter, but cool summer... and rain, as the number of rainy days is above the country average (282 vs. 154) In my experience, though, rain is almost always light and seldom lasts all day, as it’s windy and the weather can change swiftly.