Getting UK HMRC to recognise my UK State Pension as not receiving the yearly increases.

[Pumpuynarak]

I'm having extreme difficulty in getting the UK HMRC to recognise that i don't receive the yearly increases to my state pension as i'm resident in Thailand. Now this problem has been evident every year for some inexplicable reason and i have to contact HMRC and the DWP and attempt to get it sorted which always proves difficult. This current year 2024-2025 is really proving difficult despite numerous telephone calls to the both of them.

 

Why oh why this is a problem is beyond me, neither of them appear to want to correct the problem, either now or in the future so the problem just continues.

 

Is anyone else suffering the same problems ? i can't believe i'm the only one !!!  

[CharlieH]

MOVED to UK forum

[RupertIII]

What is the problem, why do you require this confirmation? The only reason I can think of is for Thai tax purposes, if so I would think the the TRD should by fully aware that UK state pensions do not increase in Thailand, if not they should be.

[Pumpuynarak]

4 minutes ago, RupertIII said:

What is the problem, why do you require this confirmation? The only reason I can think of is for Thai tax purposes, if so I would think the the TRD should by fully aware that UK state pensions do not increase in Thailand, if not they should be.

 

Obviously if HMRC believe i am receiving the state pension increases then they will tax my income accordingly. My State Pension was incorrectly increased from £124 pw to £135 pw for the current tax year 2024/2025.

 

This issue has nothing to do with Thai taxation at the moment but obviously could do so in the future.

[topt]

41 minutes ago, Pumpuynarak said:

then they will tax my income accordingly.

This has been reported by other posters fairly regularly in the past.

Do you do a tax return? If yes then you could just claim back the (what seems to be small) overpaid tax on that once a year.

 

[Pumpuynarak]

58 minutes ago, topt said:

This has been reported by other posters fairly regularly in the past.

Do you do a tax return? If yes then you could just claim back the (what seems to be small) overpaid tax on that once a year.

 

 

Yes indeed it has but i'm interested in up to date info as to a solution to prevent it from happening. I no longer have to submit a tax return so that opportunity is no longer available to me.

My biggest frustration is i have been contacting both the HMRC and the DWP for a solution by phone at my expence and neither of them appear capable or interested in sorting this problem out and its been like that for years.

[Moonlover]

3 hours ago, Pumpuynarak said:

I'm having extreme difficulty in getting the UK HMRC to recognise that i don't receive the yearly increases to my state pension as i'm resident in Thailand. Now this problem has been evident every year for some inexplicable reason and i have to contact HMRC and the DWP and attempt to get it sorted which always proves difficult. This current year 2024-2025 is really proving difficult despite numerous telephone calls to the both of them.

 

Why oh why this is a problem is beyond me, neither of them appear to want to correct the problem, either now or in the future so the problem just continues.

 

Is anyone else suffering the same problems ? i can't believe i'm the only one !!!  

 

Write to them! Yes I do mean a good old fashioned snail mail letter to HMRC. I went through this same annoying issue about 11 years ago for 3 years and I finally cracked it by doing just that. It seems that only a letter will spur them into action.

 

After 3 years of trying, they finally pegged my state pension at the original fixed value and they also paid back 3 years worth of tax over-payments. The problem has not reoccurred.

 

I advised a guy last year on this forum to do the same and he acknowledged last August that he'd had a letter from them to say that the problem was finally resolved. He did acknowledge that it was 'hard work'. (I took that to mean a bit stressful)

 

[MartinL]

I've had this problem every year since taking my SP in 2019. I've written a snail-mail letter to HMRC every year and, at the same time, phoned them as a 'belt and braces' measure - not DWP since I see it as a tax problem not a pension problem since the pension doesn't change at all  - and it was corrected but the problem recurred the following year. Last January/February, I kept an eye on my Personal Tax Account and, as soon as I noticed the SP rate for 2024/25 mentioned - it was wrong, of course - I called the HMRC and spoke to a real live person!!! Anyway, after talking about it, the agent asked if the pension was frozen at the same rate as the previous year (Of course it it, it's FROZEN!) which I confirmed. Result was that the correction was made in my PTA within 10 minutes of making that call and showed my SP figure had reverted to the correct, frozen amount. I'm hoping the if a correction's necessary this year, it'll be as easily corrected as last. Of course, it'd be ideal if we didn't have this crap to contend with every year.

 

I've tried 'nice' letters with limited success. I'm considering a Complaint letter if there's a problem this year - that has got good results for other problems in the past.

[topt]

23 minutes ago, MartinL said:

I've tried 'nice' letters with limited success. I'm considering a Complaint letter if there's a problem this year - that has got good results for other problems in the past.

HMRC have now got an online complaint form which I used late last year. I had a response within about 2 weeks from memory and actually received some compensation.

May be worth trying (if they still have it) rather than a letter.

https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-hmrc

[Mutt Daeng]

I use the HMRC webchat to correct my tax codes every year. It's easy to use and you can save the chat afterwards for your own records.

Use the chat during UK working hours. Initially you will be connected to a "digital" assistant. Ask to speak to a human. You then go into a queue and eventually your turn will arrive and you can chat to a human.

You may have to wait a while for a human (I'm normally connected in a few minutes), but at least it's free

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

[Pumpuynarak]

Thanks guys for your help, i appreciate. I'll try the HMRC webchat first as ''Mutt Daeng'' suggests and hopefully i'll get the same positive result, if not i'll lodge a complaint as ''topt'' did as their piss poor response surely deserves. Final solution will be to write to them as ''Moonlover'' recco's.

 

I'll update thread in due course.

 

I can't for the life of me understand why this is continually happening year after year despite it being corrected in the past, as ''MartinL states ''its FROZEN'' all the time i am living in Thailand and i certainly have no intention of returning to the UK with my Thai wifey to live.

They really don't appear to GAF about us guys despite us being in some cases considerable tax payers, just the same as when ''i pop me clogs'' and wifey claims her 50% widows pension from my private company scheme. She's entitled to the personal allowance every year but has to claim it EVERY year when nothing changes from year to year !!!

 

Rant over lol, once again THANKS GUYS.