Taxation on Civil Service Pension

I worked for the Civil Service for a large number of years which enabled me to receive a pension. Since I was no longer in the UK, I completely forgot that the Civil Service pension as payable at aged 60. After speaking to friend one day who mentioned that she was now receiving her pension, I got in touch with Civil Service pensions and was told that my pension was payable at age 60, I was 63 at the time. I received my pension, plus the back 3 years that I had not claimed. My question is, was this back payments taxable? If I had received the pension at aged 60, no taxes would have been paid? I have been sending in self assessment through my account. When he completed my taxes for that year, where my taxes should have been zero during the previous 3 years, I was made to pay taxes. Should he offset the 3 year back payments against those zero years?

Hi
Yes it is still taxable but you can ask for this to be allocated to the years it was actually due.
If paid this year, we cannot review anything until after 6/4/24 and you should provide a breakdown from the pension company on the years/amounts to be reallocated.

Thank you for replying. The tax was actually paid over 2 years ago. I will need to look through my papers and work on it.