State Pension and Self Assessment

I’m completing my Self Assessment for 2023/24 and noticed that the amount for my State Pension has been pre-populated with the figure of 52 times my weekly state pension amount. I understand that the tax due is based on when I became entitled to receive a payment as opposed to when I did receive it. However that 52 times the weekly rate figure is wrong as I actually would be entitled to 1 week of the old rate and 51 weeks of the new rate which is the figure correctly used for my Tax Code. So am I expected to amend that to the correct figure and if so why is the correct figure not being pre-populated? Also last tax year happened to be a 53 week payment year for me so should I amend it and state that as the reason for doing so?

Hi

While we receive your state pension figure directly from the Department for Work and Pensions, if the amount you received in the year you're filing for was different, please enter that amount.
You may wish to contact the DWP to confirm this amount.

Thank you

Thank you for your reply but I'm not quite sure I understand. First of all what I received during the year in state pension is not the same as my entitlement for the year. I am ware that for income tax purposes, the state pension is treated differently from other income where the date of receipt is what matters. With the state pension it's the date of entitlement which matters. In my case my first entitlement in the 2023/24 tax year was on the 6th April 2023 with the final entitlement on the 4th April 2024. This meant 53 weeks of entitlement. This is different to my actual payments as I'm paid 4 weekly with the last one being in the 2024/25 tax year. As to asking the DWP to confirm the amount of payment, all that they will confirm is that I am entitled to receive £xxx.xx per week. They will not give me a figure for a full tax year's entitlement. So basically the advice is to change my SA each time and supply what I know to be the correct figures even though every year it's entered incorrectly?

Hi jictink,
Apologies for any confusion.
If the amount of State Pension pre-populated on your tax return does not match the figure that you have calculated that you received.
Update your return with the figure that you have calculated that you have received.
Thank you. 

I agree the OP's comments about entitlement. S178 ITEPA 2003 states that "The taxable pension income for a tax year is the full amount of the pension, benefit or allowance accruing in that year irrespective of when any amount is actually paid." The state pension is a weekly benefit, normally paid 4-weekly paid in arrears, even though entitlement arises on each week end-date within those 4 weeks. That surely means that if one receives a 4-weekly payment on, say, 10 April 2024, when the pension increase date was on, say, 8 April, then that payment includes entitlement to 3 weeks relating to 2022/23 tax year and 1 week (week ending 10 April) during 2023/24 at the rate applicable to 2023. The first week's entitlement at the 2024 pension rate would be week commencing 11 April, so ending on 17 April. This means that when calculating entitlement for tax return purposes, one must surely use 1 week at the old rate and 51 weeks at the rate for the year in question. This appears to be how Tax Codes are calculated, so why is it that Tax Returns are not pre-populated in the same way? The final sentence of EIM76005 would seem to support this. If you search this forum there is massive confusion on both sides and calling your helplines is equally frustrating. Calling DWP is even less rewarding. Isn't it time that HMRC and DWP worked together to give taxpayers certainty over the taxable amount of their state pension in the form of a statement on the annual increase letter telling people their taxable amount for the preceding tax year was £X, i.e. something broadly similar to a P60?

I have the same problem the SA form suggesting I put 52 X the increased rate when the first week was at the previous rate. My PAYE tax code was at the correct value which rules out the DWP feed being at fault. As this could result in SA taxpayers over declaring ther income this should be fixed. HMRC Admin 25 please can you raise this internally? I will write a complaint letter.

Phone DWP on 0800 731 0469 and request a BR735 which is equivalent to a P60. It was quick to get through. Have your National Insurance number etc handy. Form takes 28 working days to come so request it each year on 6th April by phoning above number. You can then enter that figure on your tax form.

Hi, I have just had to apply for a BR735 form for the first time. There is no easy way to locate this form & it can only be organised via a 'phone call to DWP (taking up their resources) - I want to ensure that I have the correct information for my tax assessment - & I'm sure that I'm not the only one. In this digital age, surely there should be an on-line option to do this - via the Government Gateway, or via HMRC? Please can this be investigated. Many thanks.

I am currently trying to file my 2023/4 online and also see the prepopulated state pension is different from my expectation, but when I try to enter the correct amount, I am presented with a compulsory comment window asking me to explain/ support the reason for my correction but no matter what I enter in this box, I get an error message saying the only the normal alphabet and digits 0 to 9 as well as certain special characters are acceptable. Not even carriage return is acceptable. I only used the right characters but after many attempts I am still not able get past this Error block and therefore am not able to correct the prepopulated state pension figure. Can anyone offer help please as to what I can do or is it a system problem of the Self Assessment filing? Thanks in advance

Hi n Sal,
It could be that you have included a space at the beginning or end of the figure which would give an error massage. If not then you will need to contact HMRC to review:
Self Assessment: general enquiries
Thank you.

Maybe the easiest ( and quite possibly the correct ) thing to do is use the figure that HMRC show for State Pension in your Tax Code Notice. So an example for 23/24 would be a Tax Code Notice figure of 10581 ( which is used to determine the Tax Code for the year ) whereas the simple calculation of 13 X 884.80 ( the current 4 weekly rate) is 11502.40.

Apologies for an error in my earlier post, the corrected version is: Maybe the easiest ( and quite possibly the correct ) thing to do is use the figure that HMRC show for State Pension in your Tax Code Notice. So an example for 23/24 would be a Tax Code Notice figure of 10581 ( which is used to determine the Tax Code for the year ) whereas the simple calculation of 13 X 814.40 ( the 23/24 4 weekly rate) is 10600.20.

The problem with that method is that it assumes the tax code notice is infallibly correct... which, granted, it does seem to have been in this instance, but part of the purpose of Self Assessment is to correct for mistakes or out of date info in the PAYE process. As an alternative, I'd suggest finding your previous year's weekly rate, and your current year's weekly rate, and following the guidance in the "How to fill in your tax return" (SA150 Notes) from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/self-assessment-tax-return-sa100 That way, you're working from the most accurate data available to you, and using a method HMRC have declared in writing to be correct. And yes, it does come to £10581.50 for a 2023/24 New State Pension.

Of course it would be really helpful if the DWP issue an annual P60 declaring what your taxable State Pension is for the year in question; indeed that is what my occupational pension provider does....actually printed on the back of the March pension payslip. PS Your link is really helpful maxb

Not HMRC...this is what is so ridiculous about the whole situation surrounding 51/1 versus 13 x amount...the difference on this is £18.70, for the basic rate taxpayer this is a tax difference of £3.74 tax...in no other area of taxation would HMRC question or amend or seek to collect this if it were the positon annually, recognizing what is reduced in one year is then mde up again in the following year following the same methodology until the person passes...tax codes round the position to nearest £5 as it is...

Just a pity that the guidance doesn't have a section for the 53 week tax years which come up every so often. Then it's 1 week of old and 52 weeks of new.

Just been on to my HMRC log in, apparently I don't need a tax return for 24/25. It also said my state pension figure isn't available. I became a state pensioner last month and received one week in the middle of the month. Based on my reading, I should include the 3 weeks to 5/4/25 in my income. If I do that, I will owe them money. If I just include the 1 week, they will owe me a small amount. I had a salary and 2 private pensions in 24/25, plus the state. As they're not apparently issuing a return, I intend to wait to see if they issue an old style assessment once they've collated the 4 sources of income. As an aside, it does seem unfair that they would add £850 to my 24/25 income (3 weeks) which I will pay 40% tax when I will not receive it until 25/26 when I will be 20%