UK Tax Code 24/25 and Frozen Pension.

[MartinL]

I checked my online HMRC Personal Tax Account (PTA) today to find out whether or not they'd presumed my frozen pension for 24/25 had received the annual increase when, of course, it has not. Sure enough, the pension figure had been increased by 8.3% and my tax code had decreased = more tax.

 

I called HMRC on +44 135 535 9022 and eventually spoke to someone after a half-hour wait and that awful 'music'. She initially said that they'd have to wait until officially advised by DWP that the pension was frozen before any correction could be made. When I pushed it a bit, she spoke to somebody and came back to say that, since the figure for frozen pension was the same in 24/25 as it was for all previous years that I've received the pension, they could change it there and then which she did.

 

Ten minutes after completing the call, I rechecked my PTA and the correction had already appeared there.

 

If you have this same problem and your pension amount is unchanged, ask the advisor to check because they CAN make the correction immediately if pension amount is unchanged

[Pumpuynarak]

16 hours ago, MartinL said:

I checked my online HMRC Personal Tax Account (PTA) today to find out whether or not they'd presumed my frozen pension for 24/25 had received the annual increase when, of course, it has not. Sure enough, the pension figure had been increased by 8.3% and my tax code had decreased = more tax.

 

I called HMRC on +44 135 535 9022 and eventually spoke to someone after a half-hour wait and that awful 'music'. She initially said that they'd have to wait until officially advised by DWP that the pension was frozen before any correction could be made. When I pushed it a bit, she spoke to somebody and came back to say that, since the figure for frozen pension was the same in 24/25 as it was for all previous years that I've received the pension, they could change it there and then which she did.

 

Ten minutes after completing the call, I rechecked my PTA and the correction had already appeared there.

 

If you have this same problem and your pension amount is unchanged, ask the advisor to check because they CAN make the correction immediately if pension amount is unchanged

 

How can the figure be the same for 24/25 as in all previous years if they have imposed the 8.3% increase for the 24/25 tax year ?

[Mutt Daeng]

22 hours ago, MartinL said:

I checked my online HMRC Personal Tax Account (PTA) today to find out whether or not they'd presumed my frozen pension for 24/25 had received the annual increase when, of course, it has not. Sure enough, the pension figure had been increased by 8.3% and my tax code had decreased = more tax.

 

I called HMRC on +44 135 535 9022 and eventually spoke to someone after a half-hour wait and that awful 'music'. She initially said that they'd have to wait until officially advised by DWP that the pension was frozen before any correction could be made. When I pushed it a bit, she spoke to somebody and came back to say that, since the figure for frozen pension was the same in 24/25 as it was for all previous years that I've received the pension, they could change it there and then which she did.

 

Ten minutes after completing the call, I rechecked my PTA and the correction had already appeared there.

 

If you have this same problem and your pension amount is unchanged, ask the advisor to check because they CAN make the correction immediately if pension amount is unchanged

Thanks @MartinL. After reading this I checked my PTA using the HMRC app and they have done the same to me and assumed I received an annual rise, so for the current tax year (23/24), I now have a lower tax code than I should have. In the past I have been able to correct tax code issues using their chat service at

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/ask-hmrc/chat/online-services-helpdesk

I  will contact them later today using this service when a real person should be available to chat with me.

Edited February 13 by Mutt Daeng

[Mutt Daeng]

1 hour ago, Mutt Daeng said:

Thanks @MartinL. After reading this I checked my PTA using the HMRC app and they have done the same to me and assumed I received an annual rise, so for the current tax year (23/24), I now have a lower tax code than I should have. In the past I have been able to correct tax code issues using their chat service at

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/ask-hmrc/chat/online-services-helpdesk

I  will contact them later today using this service when a real person should be available to chat with me.

Update: I just finished "chatting" with a very helpful HMRC adviser on their chat service. They have amended their records for 23/24 and 24/25 and corrected my tax codes for those 2 years. Job done, dead easy.

[Pumpuynarak]

On 2/12/2024 at 3:49 PM, MartinL said:

I checked my online HMRC Personal Tax Account (PTA) today to find out whether or not they'd presumed my frozen pension for 24/25 had received the annual increase when, of course, it has not. Sure enough, the pension figure had been increased by 8.3% and my tax code had decreased = more tax.

 

I called HMRC on +44 135 535 9022 and eventually spoke to someone after a half-hour wait and that awful 'music'. She initially said that they'd have to wait until officially advised by DWP that the pension was frozen before any correction could be made. When I pushed it a bit, she spoke to somebody and came back to say that, since the figure for frozen pension was the same in 24/25 as it was for all previous years that I've received the pension, they could change it there and then which she did.

 

Ten minutes after completing the call, I rechecked my PTA and the correction had already appeared there.

 

If you have this same problem and your pension amount is unchanged, ask the advisor to check because they CAN make the correction immediately if pension amount is unchanged

 

Yep sure enough i have also checked my HMRC PTA and they are also proposing that i receive the 8.3% pension increase for 24/25 when my pension is frozen.

 

What is going on here ? HTF can they get this wrong ? Now who is at fault ? The DWP know i don't receive the increases and have'nt done for years so why are they informing the HMRC that i am ? or is it a case of the HMRC just applying the % increase to ALL STATE PENSIONS irrespective as to whether your pension is frozen or not.

 

This is happening every year for me and i have to amend the online HMRC PTA statement to reflect that i'm not receiving any increase.

I do the online method rather than phone them and be waiting up to 45 mins on average to talk to someone.

 

Any of you guys that phone the HMRC have you ever asked them why this is happening ?

[Mutt Daeng]

10 minutes ago, Pumpuynarak said:

 

Yep sure enough i have also checked my HMRC PTA and they are also proposing that i receive the 8.3% pension increase for 24/25 when my pension is frozen.

 

What is going on here ? HTF can they get this wrong ? Now who is at fault ? The DWP know i don't receive the increases and have'nt done for years so why are they informing the HMRC that i am ? or is it a case of the HMRC just applying the % increase to ALL STATE PENSIONS irrespective as to whether your pension is frozen or not.

 

This is happening every year for me and i have to amend the online HMRC PTA statement to reflect that i'm not receiving any increase.

I do the online method rather than phone them and be waiting up to 45 mins on average to talk to someone.

 

Any of you guys that phone the HMRC have you ever asked them why this is happening ?

I spoke to an HMRC adviser using their chat service yesterday about the same thing. (See my posts above). The advisor told me that HMRC are acting on info from the DWP. So the DWP is providing the wrong figures to HMRC. I asked the advisor if there was some way they could flag my account to indicate my pension was frozen, so this wouldn't happen again and was advised they could not. I got my tax codes fixed yesterday for 23/24 and 24/25 while I was chatting to them via the web.

[Pumpuynarak]

47 minutes ago, Mutt Daeng said:

I spoke to an HMRC adviser using their chat service yesterday about the same thing. (See my posts above). The advisor told me that HMRC are acting on info from the DWP. So the DWP is providing the wrong figures to HMRC. I asked the advisor if there was some way they could flag my account to indicate my pension was frozen, so this wouldn't happen again and was advised they could not. I got my tax codes fixed yesterday for 23/24 and 24/25 while I was chatting to them via the web.

 

Thanks for your explanation, quite unbelievable that the DWP is causing this problem.

 

How can they arrive at a figure to inform HMRC and not actually pay me the same figure ? Beggars belief......

[OJAS]

On 2/14/2024 at 11:39 AM, Pumpuynarak said:

 

Thanks for your explanation, quite unbelievable that the DWP is causing this problem.

 

How can they arrive at a figure to inform HMRC and not actually pay me the same figure ? Beggars belief......

 

Short of raising a formal complaint with DWP about this "shining" example of blatantly brazenly bungling incompetence and ineptitude on their part in accordance with the procedure set out on the GOV.UK website*, I'm not sure what else can be done on this matter.

 

* https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure