Sue Nicola

Apologies if my questions are naive - I am struggling! I am about to get a tax free lump sum of 25% of my Civil Service penion pot. I also have young children so I am trying to ascertain my continuing eligibility for Child Benefit and also Tax Free Childcare/30 hours free childcare once I get the lump sum. Taking Child Benefit first, I believe that my 25% tax free lump sum is NOT taken into account for 'adjusted net income'. Is this correct? Of course my new monthly pension income together with earnings likely WILL take me over the 50k level, but I think the tax free lump sum is NOT in that equation. Now, moving to eligibility for Tax Free Childcare/30 hours - the ceiling there is 100k. I don't believe I will get anywhere near that - but my logic is predicated on the 25% tax free lump sum NOT being in the equation. Again, am I correct?

I am self employed AND employed. I do a self assessment form each year. My question is - I am about to get a tax free 25% lump sum from a pension. Although this amount is tax free and is not taxable income, do I still need to inform HMRC about it anywhere on the tax return ? It's a Civil Service pension so I know that tax will be deduced at source from the monthly payments, so my question is specific to the 25% tax free lump sum.