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Pension Tax Relief Payments

Hi, any help or thoughts would be very much appreciated.

I finished work in Febuary 2021 to look after my father so have been using my savings to live on together with a carers allowance of £270 a month.

I had been paying into the works pension for a few years but not in great amounts.

In October 2021 I opened a personal pension plan with Pension Bee and transferred the small amount that was in the works pension into it.

At the same time I also started paying in monthly sums of money using money from my savings.

In the tax year

2021/2022 I paid in £20700
2022/2023 I paid in £12000
2023/2024 paid in so far £7000

Pension Bee have automatically been collecting tax relief from HMRC and adding it to my contributions

2021/2022 HMRC TOP UP £5175
2022/2023 HMRC TOP UP £3000
2023/2024 HMRC TOP UP £1750

I know this is naive but did not realise that there was a limit to what I could pay into the pension and also the tax relief HMRC contributed.

I have read about the 3 year carry forward rule but am really unsure if I can use this to offset any of the HMRC contributions.

Below are my earnings from the last 3 years before I finished work and the pension payments I made into the works pension.

Tax Year

2018/2019  Total Pay £19559 Pension Payment Total £696
2019/2020  Total Pay £18481 Pension Payment Total £2050
2020/2021  Total Pay £15821 Pension Payment Total £2138

If I have to pay all the HMRC contributions back I am happy to do that. I am really worried that I have broken the law.

I am going to ring Pension Bee and talk with them on how to sort this out, but just wanted some insight from others who have a better understanding of this than me.

Thank you so much to anyone who can advise.

Kind regards, andy.

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