Pension Tax Rebate...does it count to estate?

kenji123

Hi,
I'm new here. I'm hoping my question hasn't been asked before...if it has been covered in other posts...sorry.

My bankruptcy order was made Feb this year, so I'm still going through the wait period of a year (hopefully!) before discharge. Everything's going fine to date.

My only income over the last 3 years or so has been from 4 personal pensions paid monthly.....3 are quite small and one is reasonable, but the total together is obviously known by, and not bothered by, the OR's office, as they see it as more or less covering my meagre living expenses. I had/have no other assets (to put it simply!).

I realised a couple of weeks back that I'd been paying basic rate tax on these pensions (paid to me net of tax), so I sent all supporting docs (P60s, etc) to HMRC and asked them to look at the previous 3 tax years, with a view to a tax rebate, mainly against personal allowance (that hadn't been taken into account each of these years).

They replied today saying - as I expected - that any rebate would go initially to the OR's office.

OK...so I expected that...but this rebate is purely set against over-payment of tax on my personal pensions AND, as I understand it, personal pensions approved by HMRC (which these are) are not considered part of my estate (after March 2000 act). So could I expect this rebate of pension tax back?

Your advice would be really appreciated.