Emergency tax code, overdraft distress

moneymiser113

Hope this is the right forum. My partner broke down in tears this morning after admitting she is really struggling for money at the moment.
She works for a council in an admin role. She was recently given a new role in the council and as such has been moved onto an emergency tax code (BR/O) whereby she has to pay 20% tax on ALL her income. It is not taking into account the £11k (?) personal allowance.


She is also being charged £30 a month to use her bank overdraft.


And she has been made to pay £100 towards her pension each month, although she says she can apply to only pay half.



All of these added together are causing her a great deal of stress. The council HR department appear to be pretty useless. So far all they've done is told her to call HMRC to get her on the right code. However when she called HMRC (and waited on the phone for ages), she was eventually told by an automated voice that nothing could be done at the moment and she'd have to wait until October.


Does this all sound normal? How can she get on the right tax code and stop paying so much tax finally?
Thank you

dan958

You don't need to wait until October. More information on changing the tax code can be found here; https://www.gov.uk/tax-codes/updating-tax-code

moneymiser113

dan958 wrote: »

You don't need to wait until October. More information on changing the tax code can be found here; https://www.gov.uk/tax-codes/updating-tax-code

She requires a P45 for that but she doesn't have one as she only changed roles internally at the council; she didn't leave the council.
When she enquired they simply told her to phone HMRC but that led to 'please wait til October'.


She received her most recent payslip today which still says BR/0 on it. However on HMRC website portal her code is 1256L. It's been this way for the last few slips and is driving her nuts.

Kentish_Dave

If she’s struggling can you not help her out while this gets sorted?

badmemory

I think HMRC have misunderstood what she was asking. She needs to ask them to send her current tax code to her employer. The employer is acting as if this is her second job (as if she still has both jobs). It may well be that HMRC thought for one month that she had 2 jobs but now they know that she doesn't!

RecentPost

If this is a new new change she has probably ended up with two records on her National PAYE account with HMRC.

This usually happens due to a change in Payroll number.

She does need to speak to someone at the tax office to get this fixed as the employer cant fix this.

super_saver123

You can definitely talk to the HMRC and get the tax code sorted out. It'll take effect from the next pay day and your partner may even get a tax refund through the payroll.

Maybe post some details about the pension on the pension board. I am no expert but I suspect your partner has more options than just being made to pay £100 per month.

kangoora

I would strongly suggest that reducing her pension should be the very last resort. Pensions are paid from pre-tax money so if it is £100 deducted then if she cancelled this she would only get £67 extra, not £100 (after paying tax and NI contributions on the £100).

I know sometimes it can be difficult to think about retirement as it seems a long way off but local council (LGPS) pensions are one of the best in the country for the cost - she would very much regret not paying into a pension when she hits retirement age.

Even a 'short' pension 'holiday' is ill-advised as there is always 'something else' to spend money on and before you know it you're 60 years old, retiring in 8 years and only have the basic state pension to live on.........