Government Letters

They seem to have made a lot of changes since I last went on in February. I was not (and don't believe I need to be) signed up for self-assessment but ended up pressing that button in an effort to find out what's going on.

Maybe my age, or I've had a busy day, but I don't find the site easy to navigate.

I had made a note when I accessed the site in February that I wanted tax letters by Post. This seems to have not been set, in fact neither post or on-line was set.

If they have details of any interest on savings or dividends received I have yet to find where they are.

I've never seen any income figs on there except for pay and pensions. Any tax code adjustments for interest and divs seems to be based on estimates from the previous year so can only be approximate.

Presumably HMRC do get told what interest is paid, but unlike pay and pensions it doesn't appear in real time!

nib

Very transparent then :(

Will they appear eventually if taxed?

HMRC got themselves into a right old tangle over this issue and have only recently begun to sort it out. For several years it was not clear to savers how to ensure that their savings interest was properly reported to HMRC. It arose, of course, because banks used to have to tax savings interest at source, and now they don't.

But the seriously well off don't even bother to claim the state pension in which case the DWP know 'nothing' about them and the £200 won't be paid out because DWP don't have any bank account details for you !.

I had this argument with a lady at the bus stop when I was about

And the payment comes from the DWP, not HMRC. Unless DWP have your bank details (not a foregone possibility) then you don't get it.

It's hard to avoid if you have an NI number.

DWP usually have the bank account details. The majority of state pensions are paid direct into the bank.

For those who either don't have a bank account or have chosen not to have money paid into it (and therefore still have a pension order book, if they still exist), I expect that the WFA and Christmas Bonus are paid as an extra on that week's pension order slip.

The Christmas Bonus always was.

I had to apply for my state pension, otherwise I wouldn't have received it.

You always have to apply for it.

Some leave applying until a later date in order to increase the weekly amount when they do apply.

I must be going senile. IIRC at some birthday or other, they simply said I would be receiving it and I did.

I can't comment on that, but there is a scheme wherein one can defer taking one's "state pension" (as Retirement Pension now seems to be called) and become entitled to a slightly higher weekly amount from a later date.

I received nothing like the letter you described and I rang up about five weeks before the relevant birthday in order to make a claim. It was all done over the phone with payment arrangements made in advance. I handed in my necessary one month's notice at the same time.

As to current arrangements (which came about at the same time as the "New - higher - Pension" was introduced), CoPilot has this to say:

QUOTE: If You Reached State Pension Age On or After 6 April 2016:

- Automatic deferral: If you don’t claim your pension, it’s automatically deferred.

- Increase rate: Your pension increases by 1% for every 9 weeks you defer, which equals about 5.8% per year.

- Example: If your weekly pension is £230.25, deferring for a year would add £13.35 per week, or £694.20 annually.

- Payment method: The extra amount is added to your regular weekly payments. ENDQUOTE

No idea what the state pension age is or was. Or how I came to receive it.

If you were born before 6th April 1951, it was your 65th birthday.

Ah yes. That feels right

No they don't. If you have never received any sort of benefit then they definately won't have your bank details until you claim your state pension and provide it.