A letter of thanks to LITR and a promise of co-operation to HMRC

I look forward to joining a Teams today, I am sorry not to be at Croydon at HMRC offices to do this properly. I hope that as many who have been involved in this campaign will be on the call as can be.

As we need to look forwards this afternoon  and not be self-congratulatory, I would like to thank LITR, supported by the Chartered Institute of Taxation for continuing to put pressure on HMRC- NOW.

This summer (2025) we should be giving a lot of people who need it , good news about what will be seen as a windfall in the coming weeks.

It is of course not a windfall, it is money that should be in their pension pot as a saving incentive. And we cannot announce this for this summer as the payment won’t be paid for another year and is now due in 2026.

It is not for most people getting it, the full amount lost by paying pension contributions under net pay;  that will not be paid on a back dated basis before 2024. That is a shocking , disgraceful shortfall but it is what has been agreed and we can do no more.

There are of course many people who will not be caught by the Net Pay fiasco, 14m Nest accounts have been created with “Relief at Source”. These people have been given the savings incentive into their pension. By comparison, a comparable savings account (pension by name alone) NOW, has not paid these incentives because it operated under net pay. We should remember their attempts to do something for those impacted by the net pay shortfall in payments by HMRCA.

We should remember that the private sector is much wider than master trust occupational schemes, there are many occupational pension schemes that cover employees of one company in the private sector. They have been little involved in this matter , only Tesco has fought for their low-earning employees who pay pension contributions, Before November 2015 they got no help but after then they were in two Legal & General master trusts and managed it so that those who benefited , were able to access a relief at source pension plan, Well done Tesco for using muscle to get the best deal. There was of course an underpayment to some before November 2015.

But the largest area of net payments into pensions is in the public sector where contributions for low earners do not get incentives, Many low earners will be eligible from 2026 on a back-dated basis. These are people who are getting recompense , but as with the private sector, these employees will be short-changed by the Government they work for. This is as disgraceful as the private sector’s short and late payments.

I am pleased to see on the list of people who have been invited this afternoon representatives of savers, including the TUC, PLSA, TISA and several individuals who have campaigned for the rights of the ill-treated by the HMRC in this and other areas. The HMRC are copied in on this correspondence and I will finish by making my personal statement on this afternoon,

Our job is to find a way to communicate the good news of a payment into people’s bank accounts if they claim it.

It must be promoted as good news and not bad news. There will be many means to highlight the short payment and the late payment. I will make my grievance to those on this mail clear now and this afternoon I will be positive. People are getting more value for money from their savings but there needs to be more work done helping many to get pensions from their savings and that will become apparent over the summer.

I hope that the meeting we have today will kick off communications to the low earners who often are vulnerable , so they get value for their money both in and outside their pension plan.

Thank you to all who have stood up for more than ten years campaigning.  Thank you HMRC for bringing us into the discussion on how to promote the payments going to savers still being short-changed by the net pay pension contribution system.