UK Pensions and related info

[evadgib]

I haven't ploughed through this yet, but i'm curious as to how it might effect anyone re Pensions/DL's/Passports/NHS/Electoral entitlement or (UK) residency status?

Quote

The Data Standards Authority (DSA) has recommended the use of new open data standards to improve data sharing across government.

At the Spring Budget, the government made a commitment to improve how it uses data to drive better public services.

Data standards create a consistent way to record and share data within government. These standards will improve services for citizens by allowing departments access to high quality data quickly, easily and securely, protecting personal data at all times. People will then experience more personalised government services and support...

 

Data authority sets new standards to improve data sharing across government

Edited August 7, 2020 by evadgib

[evadgib]

Presumably of interest to the board:

GAD’s key role in pensions consultation

[maxcorrigan]

On 7/27/2020 at 9:36 AM, sandyf said:

Quite but I am not bothered, only takes about 15 minutes to to the online return and I have a spreadsheet to crosscheck the payments anyway. Quite nice to get that couple of hundred pound every May. Didn't get as much last year as I got 14 pension payments, something that only happens every 21 years.

Sandy very informative, i got to plead the dumbo here how do i find this "online return" not that i'm expecting much as my pension is nearly £140 a week barring a couple of coppers, i have not received a P60 this year so other than knowing my code is 7L would not be able to quote figures if needed!

Sorry to tax your brain like this sandyf but you seem to be well up on this particular topic. 

[sandyf]

40 minutes ago, maxcorrigan said:

Sandy very informative, i got to plead the dumbo here how do i find this "online return" not that i'm expecting much as my pension is nearly £140 a week barring a couple of coppers, i have not received a P60 this year so other than knowing my code is 7L would not be able to quote figures if needed!

Sorry to tax your brain like this sandyf but you seem to be well up on this particular topic. 

You will find the details here

https://www.gov.uk/log-in-file-self-assessment-tax-return

 

You will need to register with government gateway, not sure if problems with that from here as I have been registered for about 15 years. You also need a phone number for the OTP login.

Good luck.

[maxcorrigan]

4 hours ago, sandyf said:

You will find the details here

https://www.gov.uk/log-in-file-self-assessment-tax-return

 

You will need to register with government gateway, not sure if problems with that from here as I have been registered for about 15 years. You also need a phone number for the OTP login.

Good luck.

Thanks Sandy i had already enrolled with the government gateway site sometime back so will give it a try, as i said i have received no P60 this year so can't quote any figures which i'm sure they will ask for on the form, thanks a lot for your help sandyf much appreciated!

[topt]

8 hours ago, sandyf said:

You will find the details here

https://www.gov.uk/log-in-file-self-assessment-tax-return

Are you aware that, strictly speaking, you are not supposed to use the online return if not UK resident -  I am presuming you are not but apologies if wrong and may be useful to others.

 

https://www.gov.uk/tax-uk-income-live-abroad

Quote

Sending a Self Assessment tax return

You cannot use HMRC’s online services to tell them about your income if you’re non-resident. Instead, you need to:

• send your tax return by post
• use commercial software
• get help from a professional, like an accountant

Fill in the ‘residence’ section (form SA109 if you’re sending it by post) to tell HMRC you’re non-resident. Fill in any sections relating to your type of income.

Whichever presumably it has not been an issue so carry on! 

[lungbing]

As my income as a pensioner only consists of two UK pensions which are taxed at source, the Inland Revenue said I no longer need to fill in a form unless my circumstances change.  Perhaps that applies to you.  You can only ask.

[steve187]

5 minutes ago, lungbing said:

As my income as a pensioner only consists of two UK pensions which are taxed at source, the Inland Revenue said I no longer need to fill in a form unless my circumstances change.  Perhaps that applies to you.  You can only ask.

 

10 hours ago, maxcorrigan said:

Sandy very informative, i got to plead the dumbo here how do i find this "online return" not that i'm expecting much as my pension is nearly £140 a week barring a couple of coppers, i have not received a P60 this year so other than knowing my code is 7L would not be able to quote figures if needed!

Sorry to tax your brain like this sandyf but you seem to be well up on this particular topic. 

a UK tax free allowance is around £12,500, if your wife was ever registered for tax/NI in the UK you can claim 10% of her allowance making it £13,750. any thing over that amount you should be paying 20%, 

 

normally the tax man ( could be a women) takes your state pension off the £12,500 (£13,750) and gives the remaining tax allowance to any income you receive by way of a tax code ie £12,500 less £8,000 of state pension gives a tax coding to be passed on to any other income of £4,500  ie 450 and a letter

 

@max corrigan not sure where you get the 7L from, the L normally refers to someone under state pension age, so is that correct? normally the tax code should be 3 or 4 digits and a letter

 

if any of my post is like trying to teach a grandmother how to suck eggs then i apologize

[sandyf]

13 hours ago, steve187 said:

@max corrigan not sure where you get the 7L from, the L normally refers to someone under state pension age, so is that correct? normally the tax code should be 3 or 4 digits and a letter.

The letter L has nothing to do with age. The number is the tax free amount times 10, £70 tax free in this case.

 

L

At basic, higher and additional rates depending on the amount of taxable income

For an employee entitled to the standard tax-free Personal Allowance

 

https://www.gov.uk/employee-tax-codes/letters

[sandyf]

18 hours ago, maxcorrigan said:

Thanks Sandy i had already enrolled with the government gateway site sometime back so will give it a try, as i said i have received no P60 this year so can't quote any figures which i'm sure they will ask for on the form, thanks a lot for your help sandyf much appreciated!

I shouldn't worry about a P60, just tell them how much you have received. You have to state your state pension separately which is always net. You then state the gross amount of all other pensions and how much tax has been paid.

 

I should have said that you would need to register with the gateway using a UK address, which if you are already registered would be the case. You would also need a UK bank account for the refund or they would send a cheque to the registered address.

[sandyf]

14 hours ago, topt said:

Are you aware that, strictly speaking, you are not supposed to use the online return if not UK resident -  I am presuming you are not but apologies if wrong and may be useful to others.

 

https://www.gov.uk/tax-uk-income-live-abroad

Whichever presumably it has not been an issue so carry on! 

I once put it to the HMRC if you were resident for tax purposes was it ok to use the online return and received an evasive answer. So until there is a definitive clarification.

[maxcorrigan]

On 8/9/2020 at 8:59 AM, sandyf said:

I shouldn't worry about a P60, just tell them how much you have received. You have to state your state pension separately which is always net. You then state the gross amount of all other pensions and how much tax has been paid.

 

I should have said that you would need to register with the gateway using a UK address, which if you are already registered would be the case. You would also need a UK bank account for the refund or they would send a cheque to the registered address.

 "You can only be taxed on the amount you receive (the frozen rate)" Sandy This was part of the answer i received from the DWP office couple of weeks back Thanks sandyf for your input and interest.

[DaLa]

On 7/22/2020 at 9:48 AM, evadgib said:

From CABP received today:

 

Thanks Dave, completed.

[sandyf]

47 minutes ago, maxcorrigan said:

 "You can only be taxed on the amount you receive (the frozen rate)" Sandy This was part of the answer i received from the DWP office couple of weeks back Thanks sandyf for your input and interest.

State pension is always net, frozen or not, DWP do not collect tax. If state pension was your only income and above the personal limit you would have to pay them manually.

Normally the state pension is taken into consideration with other income and any tax due applied to the other income.

In my case the inland revenue always do a code number on the basis my pension is not frozen, hence there is always an overpayment in tax. So much for them working hand in hand.

No problem.

[maxcorrigan]

4 hours ago, sandyf said:

State pension is always net, frozen or not, DWP do not collect tax. If state pension was your only income and above the personal limit you would have to pay them manually.

Normally the state pension is taken into consideration with other income and any tax due applied to the other income.

In my case the inland revenue always do a code number on the basis my pension is not frozen, hence there is always an overpayment in tax. So much for them working hand in hand.

No problem.

Thanks Sandy yes i have another pension with LPFA or London Pension Authority who take the tax required as supplied and code number by the DWP, when i asked them about tax and frozen pensions,they said there was nothing they could do and to take it up with DWP so round in circles it goes!

[sandyf]

22 minutes ago, maxcorrigan said:

Thanks Sandy yes i have another pension with LPFA or London Pension Authority who take the tax required as supplied and code number by the DWP, when i asked them about tax and frozen pensions,they said there was nothing they could do and to take it up with DWP so round in circles it goes!

I think you have misunderstood something, neither LPFA or DWP would have any say in the amount of tax or the code number being used. That would come from HMRC.

DWP pay you a pension which is taxable but free from tax, no code involved. LPFA pay you a pension and deduct tax according to the code from HMRC. 

If you code is 7L, then for arguments sake if your pension from LPFA was £5070/year, then you would pay tax on £5000, as you would be allowed £70 tax free. Your total tax for the year would be around £1000.

[sandyf]

Those concerned with the frozen pensions issue ought to read the transcript of this debate held in 2016.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/debates/GetDebateAsText/16051148000001

[maxcorrigan]

On 8/11/2020 at 4:45 PM, sandyf said:

I think you have misunderstood something, neither LPFA or DWP would have any say in the amount of tax or the code number being used. That would come from HMRC.

DWP pay you a pension which is taxable but free from tax, no code involved. LPFA pay you a pension and deduct tax according to the code from HMRC. 

If you code is 7L, then for arguments sake if your pension from LPFA was £5070/year, then you would pay tax on £5000, as you would be allowed £70 tax free. Your total tax for the year would be around £1000.

Thanks for your help Sandy you have explained that very clearly, i will check when i'm on my desktop PC on haw much LPFA pay a month then over a year,

i need as far as can see a P60 to see how much tax i have actually paid and if i have overpaid, as you've probably realised i'm not the sharpest tool in the box when it comes to figures like this!

[maxcorrigan]

28 minutes ago, maxcorrigan said:

Thanks for your help Sandy you have explained that very clearly, i will check when i'm on my desktop PC on haw much LPFA pay a month then over a year,

i need as far as can see a P60 to see how much tax i have actually paid and if i have overpaid, as you've probably realised i'm not the sharpest tool in the box when it comes to figures like this!

Sandy just re-read your earlier post about not needing a P60 so i'll add up my yearly income and send it to them as you suggested!

[sandyf]

12 hours ago, maxcorrigan said:

Sandy just re-read your earlier post about not needing a P60 so i'll add up my yearly income and send it to them as you suggested!

What you need to enter on the form is the gross amount and the tax paid, a P60 is certainly the easiest way to get the info.

You should know what the gross annual amount is, it will either be fixed or variable, if variable then the pension provider should notify you of the new amount prior to the start of each year.

You will know from your account what you receive in the year, so add up the payments and deduct from the gross amount to get the tax paid.

If you don't have the notifications from the pension company the best solution is to request a P60 for the years concerned.

[maxcorrigan]

1 hour ago, sandyf said:

What you need to enter on the form is the gross amount and the tax paid, a P60 is certainly the easiest way to get the info.

You should know what the gross annual amount is, it will either be fixed or variable, if variable then the pension provider should notify you of the new amount prior to the start of each year.

You will know from your account what you receive in the year, so add up the payments and deduct from the gross amount to get the tax paid.

If you don't have the notifications from the pension company the best solution is to request a P60 for the years concerned.

Yes a P60 would tell how much gross amount and tax paid. when i asked LPFA for a P60 they answered for security reason they can't send online, normally every year they send by mail, but this year and with the CV19 panic i've received nothing, will keep trying to get a P60 the combinrd amount i've received the year up to 2019 is £14,60884 that of course includes the dependency allowance of which i think was £64 or there about, £70 being tax free. hope this makes sense!

 

[sandyf]

21 hours ago, maxcorrigan said:

Yes a P60 would tell how much gross amount and tax paid. when i asked LPFA for a P60 they answered for security reason they can't send online, normally every year they send by mail, but this year and with the CV19 panic i've received nothing, will keep trying to get a P60 the combinrd amount i've received the year up to 2019 is £14,60884 that of course includes the dependency allowance of which i think was £64 or there about, £70 being tax free. hope this makes sense!

 

I use a mailing service. All mail is sent there, they open and scan it then you can read and download online.

There are many about and the one I use is UK Postbox, been with them about 8 years and never had a problem. In 2016 I took BA to court in the UK which I couldn't have done without it.

[jwest10]

On 5/12/2020 at 10:07 AM, izod10 said:

They cannot do anything,it says so DWP rules. They cannot stop anything,if they did the DWP would be breaking the law by not paying you a pension

 

  Just one more time   woman lived openly in Aussie for years,DWP knew about her,threatened her but she refused to a frozen pension.  DWP took her to court,county court in this instance,so confident of winning the DWP never turned up to court,same same guy in Bristol  DWP never turned up,  but gave warning will not contest individual case ,but multiple yes they will

Hi All
And was sure there was a topic on Life certificates but searched all over for it and 
Please can anyone help me and to do with a life certificate re the state pension
I had one in 2016 and another one in 2018 about this time of the year and half expected one this time but not yet.
Others not had one and a bit concerned others not received letters and the meagre pension was stopped.
Any idea and know they extended the time to return this non existent form
Perhaps having received 2 maybe someone else is due one but belief it is randomly chosen.
Any help appreciated.

 

[transam]

9 minutes ago, jwest10 said:

Hi All
And was sure there was a topic on Life certificates but searched all over for it and 
Please can anyone help me and to do with a life certificate re the state pension
I had one in 2016 and another one in 2018 about this time of the year and half expected one this time but not yet.
Others not had one and a bit concerned others not received letters and the meagre pension was stopped.
Any idea and know they extended the time to return this non existent form
Perhaps having received 2 maybe someone else is due one but belief it is randomly chosen.
Any help appreciated.

 

The LC is random, 16 weeks to return it from the day they sent it..If you're worried, ring them, I did..

[jwest10]

2 minutes ago, transam said:

The LC is random, 16 weeks to return it from the day they sent it..If you're worried, ring them, I did..

Thank you very much, transam  and yes my post where I live is very reliable.
 

[evadgib]

Spot the missing Elephant...

The UK and the Bank of Thailand sign MoU on Financial Services

Quote

The UK Government and the Bank of Thailand (BoT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 7 August 2020, forming a strategic partnership on financial services to support Thailand’s inclusive economic recovery and green growth in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Under the MoU, the UK and the BoT agreed to collaborate to strengthen accounting standards; to enhance corporate governance and transparency; to support the development of Financial Technology (FinTech) to facilitate greater access to finance and business opportunity for Thai FinTech industry; to promote sustainable finance; and to support resilience in the financial system.

The collaboration is enabled by the UK’s ASEAN Economic Reform and ASEAN Low Carbon Energy Programmes.

 

[maxcorrigan]

19 hours ago, evadgib said:

Spot the missing Elephant...

The UK and the Bank of Thailand sign MoU on Financial Services

 

Would this amount to a reciprocal agreement then, and unfreeze pensions?????

[evadgib]

This may appear Canada specific but CABP (and BPiA) have members from other countries too:

Quote

Dear Eva,   What an unprecedented time we have been going through for the past 6 months! Certainly, the most devastating medical occurrence in all our lifetimes and we are still not out of the woods yet. I hope that you are staying healthy and that the ‘isolation’ part of our lives can soon come to an end with a vaccine to reduce our potential risks. For as long as I have been involved with CABP, we have produced a quarterly magazine (Justice) to help keep our members informed of the activities we have undertaken on your behalf as we continue to fight for our rights. There is a lot of work that goes into the development of this ‘magazine’ and it is also quite costly to produce, which is one of the reasons we encourage everyone to accept it electronically. Once again I ask those who still receive a copy in the regular mail to consider this switch if you have an email address. This will also allow us to share more timely information as it arises. This year the board decided that with the COVID situation there was likely to be less information to share with you due to parliamentary inactivity, and the decision was made to cancel the summer Justice edition, to be replaced with this newsletter. We underestimated because Tendo (our UK lobbyists) have continued to maintain an ongoing dialogue with many MP’s and news media outlets, despite the pandemic.   In June they produced a revised “Broken Faith, Book of Heroes” (can be viewed on our website) which had originally been presented to 10 Downing Street in 2010. It was a more consolidated edition with some new faces and stories added, and regrettably, some removed as they had not lived to see us successful. The launch was covered in numerous newspapers and radio reports and the foreword by actress Miriam Margolyes helped increase the profile substantially. There has been a lot of coverage in the UK this summer concerning the Caribbean immigrants that came to the UK to help rebuild the country after the Second World War. Known as the Windrush generation (after the name of the ship that transported thousands), the scandal focused on wrongful deportation over citizenship, but it gave us an opportunity to highlight one individual who suffers a frozen pension because she returned to the Caribbean to look after her ailing mother. Monica Philp’s story was widely reported (see below) and her letter to the Home Secretary received the support of 53 MPs who had previously been unaware of the frozen pension policy.   https://www.pressreader.com/uk/sunday-express-1070/20200705/281900185493202 The Guardian reporter Rupert Jones also wrote an excellent story on veteran Harold Williams, another Windrush frozen pensioner. The story can be seen here: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/jul/25/frozen-pensions-windrush-generation-retirees-living-abroad You will perhaps be aware that we engaged the services of an Ottawa lobbyist company at the end of 2019 in an attempt to increase the pressure on the Canadian government, as they can play a huge role in helping us put an end to this discrimination. Just as Earnscliffe was gearing up to arrange meetings for us with influential Canadian ministers, the pandemic caused a shutdown of all activity on parliament hill. Once again terrible timing for us, but we were able to place our engagement with Earnscliffe on hold until the situation resumes to what will be a ‘new’ normal. We are very keen to see this happen as ongoing trade discussions between Canada and the UK are taking place as we near the deadline for Brexit…….now there’s a word from the past! Whatever happened to “Brexit”? Nobody could have imagined that anything would have removed the whole Brexit fiasco from the front pages of the British tabloids but ‘the deal or no deal’ controversy barely gets a mention. Britain along with the rest of the world is dealing with the issues of lockdowns, quarantines, face masks, social distancing and vaccine research. However the Brexit December deadline is not far away and as the UK government has agreed to continue to index all pensioners in the EU, it opens up excellent new arguments for us. We have all seen the standard claims that the DWP churn out to justify freezing our pensions. Reciprocal agreements, cost, and history have been their 3 main excuses. Well, they have their ‘foot in their mouth’ again as 23 of the 27 EU countries do not have a reciprocal agreement (RA) that covers pensions and they recently signed one with Northern Ireland. Notwithstanding that a RA is not needed they cannot continue to deny us on those grounds and you can be sure that we will highlight this two-tiered discrepancy. The pension budget has a current surplus of £24 billion, which makes their 2nd claim absolute nonsense, and simple history doesn’t make it right or we would still have slavery and apartheid. The all party parliamentary group (APPG), chaired by Sir Roger Gale, has launched an inquiry into the whole frozen pension issue. I recently contacted all members by email and asked you to submit your own story to the APPG, and the response was phenomenal as almost 2500 filled out the online questionnaire and over 800 submitted an email. Additionally, I encouraged you to contact your own local Canadian MP and ask them to also send a letter to the APPG. I am pleased that 5 Canadian MPs wrote letters to Sir Roger and we have to recognise that official government appeals are likely to carry more weight than us as individuals. The letter from my own MP, Paul Manley,(Green party) can be viewed on our website, it really was quite compelling.   I cannot emphasise enough the importance of engaging your own constituency MP to inform them of this policy because regrettably many across Canada still do not know of the issue. The official copy of the CABP’s submission can be viewed on our website. (www.britishpensions.com)     Additionally, the APPG has now had submissions from DWP, Age UK, British Pensions in Australia, The New Zealand Government, Liberal Democrats Overseas, International Consortium of British Pensioners, British Caribbean Pensioners Association and the End Frozen Pensions Campaign. Canadian MPs Carol Hughes, David McGuinty, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Glen Motz, and Pat Kelly. The Civil Service Network for People of African Diaspora and Descent, the Australian Government, the Canadian Government, and the National Pensioners Convention. The Australian High Commission has confirmed that the Australian Government is hoping to submit evidence by this date and the Canadian High Commission has confirmed the Government is aware of the inquiry and is considering submitting evidence. The UK government cannot repeatedly ignore these official organisations as they continue to grow in number.   Our ‘poster gal” from Calgary, Anne Puckridge (95) who had such an impact with the media in 2018 when our delegation met with numerous MPs in Westminster,  has kept up her tenacious fight. She recently composed a letter to Johnny Mercer, the Minister of Veterans Affairs, and Sir Roger Gale will be meeting with Mr. Mercer in the near future. The next stage in our approach will be guided by his reaction and the official response from his office. One of our members has recently volunteered to revamp our website. Using his excellent “techy’ skills the refreshed site will provide more information on happenings both in Canada and in the UK as we update news stories and media coverage. While I have highlighted a couple of stories in this newsletter, I encourage you to go to our website at least once a month and keep up to date with the ‘behind the scenes activity”. We need you to stay the course and continue to help us grow. Word of mouth has always been the most effective recruitment tool and we can all play a part in that. Keep the business cards that we print in the Justice magazine in your wallets and hand them out to anyone you come across with a British accent. I just signed up a new member who works for a courier company that delivered something to my door. He had no idea that he could still be increasing his future entitlement. We may not have reached our goal yet, but rest assured we are not letting up and while frustration can inevitably creep in, we honestly do feel that sooner or later the UK government will stop this appalling discrimination. We are here to help you get what you deserve and by following up on our requests when we ask you to do something, will only improve our chances of success. We only have 2 choices…..do nothing, and 100% guaranteed nothing will happen…., or keep the pressure on until they cave. So many British MPs know that it is morally wrong and they will not continue to toe the party line under mounting pressure.   Stay healthy and safe……   Thanks

Chairman Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners

 

[jwest10]

On 8/16/2020 at 9:01 AM, maxcorrigan said:

Would this amount to a reciprocal agreement then, and unfreeze pensions?????

The DWP Department of No pension increases has consistently state no reciprocal agreement is necessary but the pathetic Govt. seem to say yes.
What is need under the Pensions Act 2014 to revoke section 20 which freezes our state pension each year.  Webb got a Knighthood for this.
Easily done but they want their own British citizens to suffer and want us all dead ASAP

[jwest10]

20 hours ago, evadgib said:

This may appear Canada specific but CABP (and BPiA) have members from other countries too:

 

Same as in the UK but they know about it ofcourse they do. Liars the lot of them.