Three pensions and a headache!

Prue

Hi, I'm new here so apologies if this isn't in the right place.

I don't work and haven't for about 8 years. My husband died in July this year. Since then I've received:

A very small pension from his place of work
A bigger pension which he started drawing at age 60
Bereavement allowance as he had NI contributions

To complicate matters, the larger pension paid out the full amount he had been getting, and I got that for 3 months. After the 3 months it dropped to just under half the amount my husband got.

And there will be a small sum of money from savings and investments to take into account.

I've had a variety of tax codes, because all the above sources of income started at different times.

Letters have passed to a fro between the tax office.
So far the smaller pension had the 810L code
The much larger pension had BR

The latest letter from the tax office tells me that the decuction for Bereavement Allowance appears in the 231T tax code to be actioned against the smaller of the pensions. It then says the decuction is 4026 and is noted as state pension/state benefits.

Using the ready reckoner tax code on the Money Savings Expert site didn't get me very far.

Can anyone help please? If only to direct me to a site where I can start to make sense of my new situtation. The tax people say I should check that my codes are right - but how?

I haven't a clue

I'm not helpless - I used to have a job in scientific research although since my husband died, my brain just doesn't function quickly. It's getting better but I'm all at sea with this and it's giving me a headache! I also feel so useless because I don't even know enough to ask the questions I need to be asking to get more information.

Thanks.
Prue

xylophone

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/p161w-man.pdf
Have you completed one of these?
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/bereavement/index.htm

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/sa100.pdf You could complete this at the end of the tax year once you have all your information to hand - this should enable you to calculate your total taxable income for the year.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/intro-income-tax.htm

Prue

Thanks very much for the information xylophone.

Yes, I've filled in a Bereavement Benefit form and sent it off.

At one point I got over £1000 back - I assume I'd paid too much tax but until I've gone through all the information, it's difficult to know if that's right or not. One assumes the tax office knows what they are doing ...

Cheers
Prue