Pension Emergency Tax - HRMC Form P55 & PAYE Reference

sj15

Hi. Where do I find out a PAYE Reference Number for my mum, as required in Form P55 for reclaiming back emergency tax on a pension lump sum payment? She has not taken the lump sum yet - I am just checking out the form to understand it for when we do need it.

She has not worked in a long long time so we don't have pay slips and she is on benefits. I found a PAYE reference "ESA500" on her P60U Employment & Support Allowance benefit statement, which gets sent out yearly.

But this is in a different format to what form P55 form requires. It will only accept 3 numbers in the beginning.

Will the pension company provide this once the lump sum payment has been made? If not where do I even begin in finding this out?

Thank you.

Edit: She is on income-related Employment & Support Allowance which I think is not taxable. She is also in the support group. Is that why she would have not PAYE reference?

squirrelpie

I think what it refers to is the pension provider's employer PAYE reference number, which will be included on the payslip that the provider sends to you when they make the payment.

Hopefully somebody will be able to confirm this, or correct my mistake.

sj15

squirrelpie said:

I think what it refers to is the pension provider's employer PAYE reference number, which will be included on the payslip that the provider sends to you when they make the payment.

Hopefully somebody will be able to confirm this, or correct my mistake.

So a PAYE reference number is kind of unique to each individual employer and pension provider? 
In that case I hope I can get it soon after the lump sum is paid. 
I thought it was unique to an individual initially.

squirrelpie

A unique employer PAYE reference number is given to an organization when it registers as an employer under the PAYE scheme. It is what identifies the employer under the scheme. A pension provider is an employer under the PAYE scheme, since it makes payments under the scheme and organizations that do that are called employers.

sj15

squirrelpie said:

A unique employer PAYE reference number is given to an organization when it registers as an employer under the PAYE scheme. It is what identifies the employer under the scheme. A pension provider is an employer under the PAYE scheme, since it makes payments under the scheme and organizations that do that are called employers.

Thanks, so a pension provider is seen as an employer. Got it.
Hopefully someone can confirm that after taking a lump sum payment out, the pension provider will send a payslip with the tax or PAYe reference on it.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Probably yes but once they have made the payment to her she could check her Personal Tax Account (on gov.uk) as that will then show details of her income from the pension company and her tax code and probably the employer reference as well.

sj15

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Probably yes but once they have made the payment to her she could check her Personal Tax Account (on gov.uk) as that will then show details of her income from the pension company and her tax code and probably the employer reference as well.

Last time we tried the government website, we could not get her identity verified. May need to check again but because she hasn't worked for so long she was a stranger.