Phoenix Life asking awkward questions conundrum !!!

Slime58

Hi all

I'm currently reviewing my pensions and have been sent a form to fill in by Phoenix Life.

It needs me to list my salary for three consecutive years between 1979 and 2009, my years of employment with the company providing that pension.

The problem is that I don't know and the figures have to be exact.

Is there a way of discovering these figures from HMRC? I've been over their website about a million times and can find nothing.

Any help would be very gratefully received!

Thanks in advance,

Slime58.

wjr4

I can see this information on my HMRC account via the government gateway. This is most likely to calculate any protected tax-free cash. 

Paul_Herring

A possible proxy for this could be your NI record, which shows how much NI you've paid over the years to when you started work (but you'd have to find out the rates of NI for those years of course): https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-your-state-pension/account/nirecord

I can see this information on my HMRC account via the government gateway.

I can only find mine going back to 2014 (https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-income-tax/historic-paye/2018) - where are you looking?

===

That said, I find the request itself a bit weird - have you asked them what it's for? Might just be some strange identity check, in which case ask if they have something else they could use that's less likely to have been forgotten over the years...

Slime58

Paul_Herring said:

That said, I find the request itself a bit weird - have you asked them what it's for? Might just be some strange identity check, in which case ask if they have something else they could use that's less likely to have been forgotten over the years...

Hi Paul

Because it's a weird type of pension, I have to fill out the form to see whether I'm eligible for more than the standard 25% tax free lump sum, which would be very useful right now!

wjr4 said:

I can see this information on my HMRC account via the government gateway. This is most likely to calculate any protected tax-free cash. 

Thanks for that, but does that cover any of the period from 1979 to 2009?

That's my particular time window.

Slime58.

Brynsam

Did you and your employer pay a fixed % of your earnings into the pension? If so, could you work back from that and gross up?

Slime58

Brynsam said:

Did you and your employer pay a fixed % of your earnings into the pension? If so, could you work back from that and gross up?

I don't believe so, that'd be too easy! 

dunstonh

That said, I find the request itself a bit weird - have you asked them what it's for? 

The OP has an EPP.   EPPs retained the ability to pay greater than 25% tax-free cash post "A" day.   However, the level of tax free cash is based on the income in the years contributions were made.

Last time I had an EPP to look at, it was a lot of work to find out the income and it ended up coming out at 26% tax free cash!   On another we told the provider we could not supply any income details and they used what they had and it came out at over 30%.  So, its not always necessary to provide details to get an increase.

Until 2001, pension providers did often take very accurate income information due to the contribution limits that existed back then.  So, sometimes they hold enough to get more than 25%.

ffacoffipawb

dunstonh said:

That said, I find the request itself a bit weird - have you asked them what it's for? 

The OP has an EPP.   EPPs retained the ability to pay greater than 25% tax-free cash post "A" day.   However, the level of tax free cash is based on the income in the years contributions were made.

Last time I had an EPP to look at, it was a lot of work to find out the income and it ended up coming out at 26% tax free cash!   On another we told the provider we could not supply any income details and they used what they had and it came out at over 30%.  So, its not always necessary to provide details to get an increase.

Until 2001, pension providers did often take very accurate income information due to the contribution limits that existed back then.  So, sometimes they hold enough to get more than 25%.

i have actually seen cases which have paid out 100% tax free cash. Very rare indeed, however.

Slime58

wjr4 said:

I can see this information on my HMRC account via the government gateway. This is most likely to calculate any protected tax-free cash. 

I've just done that, but it doesn't go back far enough.

Thanks anyway.

I tried calling them, but eventually gave up the will to live!

Will try again tomorrow.

Slime58

phillw

This sounds like a weird fishing exercise to see if you can prove how much you are entitled to. Which is why I've kept all my payslips ever....

Slime58

phillw said:

This sounds like a weird fishing exercise to see if you can prove how much you are entitled to. Which is why I've kept all my payslips ever....

Unfortunately, I'm just not that organised!

Slime58