Tax and National Insurance
HMRC will refund 3.2 million pensioners. The average is £6.
HMRC has admitted taxing the State Pension on 52 weeks instead of 51, and will repay 3.2 million people an average of £6 each.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will repay about £19.3m to 3.2 million state pensioners — an average of about £6 each.
The small figure is the story. Every outlet covering this has led on the 3.2 million. Almost none has led on what lands in the account.
What HMRC got wrong
The State Pension goes up at the start of April, but the higher weekly rate does not apply to the whole tax year. The first week of the new tax year is still paid at last year’s lower rate. HMRC’s own guidance accounts for that: it bases a full year’s State Pension on “one week at your weekly rate before the amount changes in April, 51 weeks at your weekly rate after the amount changes in April”.
For more than fifteen years its systems used 52 weeks at the higher rate instead, working from figures supplied by the Department for Work and Pensions. Pensioners with enough income to pay tax were taxed on a State Pension slightly larger than the one they were actually paid.
John-Paul Marks, HMRC’s chief executive, set this out in a letter to the Commons Treasury Committee. “I am sorry that this error occurred and recognise the impact on affected customers,” he wrote.
What comes back
One week of State Pension, taxed at the wrong rate, is a very small sum. Here is roughly what a single year of the error is worth.
| Who | Average overpaid, per tax year |
|---|---|
| Basic State Pension, basic-rate taxpayer | £1.76 |
| New State Pension, basic-rate taxpayer | £2.30 |
| New State Pension, additional-rate taxpayer, 2023-24 | up to £8.42 |
The £6 average is not six years of those figures added up. It is the whole £19.3m divided across everyone due money, and not everyone was overtaxed in every year.
You do not need to do anything to get it. HMRC says it will find the cases itself, and repayments are expected during the 2026-27 financial year — through a tax code change, a credit to a Self Assessment account, or another method where neither fits. All six years are not expected to be finished until March 2027 at the earliest.
The years that are not automatic
This is the part worth knowing. Automatic repayment reaches back to the 2020-21 tax year and no further. HMRC says that is the “maximum period for which the available data enables us to identify and correct cases reliably and efficiently”.
The error itself goes back to 2010. For that decade there is no automatic refund. In the letter to MPs, HMRC says only that “if customers believe they were affected in earlier years and have the necessary evidence, they can ask HMRC to review their position. These requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.”
So the burden sits with the pensioner, and the evidence is paperwork from a decade or more ago. Another ten years at roughly £2 a year is not life-changing either. But it is the difference between HMRC writing to you and you writing to HMRC.
The thing this is actually about
A £6 cheque is not worth chasing. A wrong State Pension figure on your tax code is, because the same figure sets what is taken from any other pension or wage you have all year. If you started getting your State Pension on or after 6 April 2010 and you have a coding notice, the State Pension line on it is the number to read — and it should not be 52 weeks of the current rate.
How we check a figure before we print it is set out on our methodology page, and every source behind this story is listed on /sources.
Where these figures come from
- Letter from John-Paul Marks, Chief Executive and First Permanent Secretary, HMRC, to the Treasury Committee — UK Parliament — Treasury Committee
- HMRC to refund 3.2 million pensioners after Telegraph exposes tax errors — The Telegraph
- State pension payments overtaxed since 2010 due to 'error', HMRC admits in apology — GB News
- HMRC to send refunds to state pensioners' bank accounts after £19m error — AOL UK
- How your State Pension is taxed — HM Revenue and Customs (GOV.UK)
- PAYE76030 - PAYE operation: pensioners: DWP uprating service of state pensions — HM Revenue and Customs (GOV.UK)
Every figure traces to a dated document — the line this section is named after. If one here is wrong, tell us and it gets fixed publicly. Work out your own figures.