UC: Do I need to report an increase in my work pension?

Robbie64

My work (Civil Service) pension increases from tomorrow (30/04/26). Do I need to inform UC of this increase? If so, how do I do this? Looking at "Report a change" on my UC account I can't see any obvious heading to click to report the change. "Money, savings and investments" seems to be just about reporting changes to capital. This is a change to income from pensions.

The DWP pick up the monthly payment from the HMRC feed when my pension is paid. It's already showing on my HMRC account for the new amount so I assume this will have been passed through to UC. My assessment period runs 21/04/26 to 20/05/26 so I haven't been overpaid.

8dayweek

You need to leave a message in your Journal with the new amount / frequency / start date.

Pensions may show on the RTI feed but UC doesn’t pull across Pension details in real-time like it does for Earnings (something to do with Pensions not necessarily needing to be reported in real-time etc so the RTI feed can be unreliable).

Robbie64

Thanks @8dayweek. I'll send a message via my Journal as above.

NedS

Yes, @8dayweek is correct, you ned to report the increase each year on your journal.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81981923#Comment_81981923

DWP only have a contract to use RTI data for earnings in UC, so although anything else on the RTI feed may be visible (on CIS), DWP do not have a contract with HMRC to use it in UC so it cannot be integrated into the UC system.

Hence the need for those in receipt of pension income to manually declare that income to UC, including any changes due to annual increases for inflation.

Also note that the GROSS amount of unearned income such as pension income is deducted from UC, so if any tax is being deducted from the pension, it is the full gross amount that UC should deduct pound for pound, not the net amount the pensioner may actually receive. So please report the gross amounts on your journal, not net amounts.

Robbie64

Thanks @NedS

In my case, the gross and net pension figures are the same.

Robbie64

Do I choose Payment as a category for my Journal message? There's a category for Change of Circumstances but it just takes me to the Report A Change screen, where there isn't any option to report the increase other than to choose "My change in circumsatnces isn't listed", which then eventually just takes me back to the Journal screen.

NedS

@Robbie64 Yes, use Payment.

Choosing a category simply directs the query either to the case manager or to the work coach, if you have one assigned. Selecting payment directs the query to your case manager. I use this for everything unless I specifically want it to go to a work coach.

There are a few things that must be manually reported on the journal as there isn't a category for them under Report a Change. Reporting pension income is one, becoming a full time student is another, I think.

Robbie64

Thanks @NedS

NedS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81982179#Comment_81982179

You're welcome, any time.

Yamor

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81982047#Comment_81982047

Interesting comments from both of you, @8dayweek and @NedS.

I've always assumed the ultimate reason why they don't use the RTI feed for pension income is because it is unearned income and is calculated based on the equivalent monthly amount of your entitlement, regardless of when paid, and it is not based simply how much was actually received in the AP (like earnings).

Regarding using the gross income and not net, I know the ADM says this, and the Sweet & Maxwell commentary also concludes as such, but I have heard of claimants who have managed to get UC to agree to use the net income.

Robbie64

Something interesting and possibly worrying (or maybe I'm just overthinking things)… I've just checked my HMRC online account and Capita, the company who is (badly) administering the Civil Service Pension scheme have seemingly submitted my payment details twice as the monthly payment for April 2026 is listed twice on the "Income received to date" page on my online HMRC account.

If the RTI feed isn't used by UC for pension payments, hopefully this won't have any sort of effect on my UC at the end of the next assessment period.

Should I contact HMRC or does a double entry not really matter? As I posted above, maybe I'm overthinking things but I don't want UC to think I received double the amount of my pension for April 2026. It would wipe out my transitional protection (and a lot more) for a start…

Edit: at least Capita haven't paid my CSP twice. It's just gone in the bank and there's only one payment gone in.