Guidance

Newsletter on the public service pensions remedy — June 2024

Published 14 June 2024

Calculate your public service pension adjustment service

On 11 April 2024, the Calculate your public service pension adjustment service was closed temporarily due to a technical issue.

As we fix this issue, we’ve considered feedback from schemes and members about the calculation and submission journey.

We’ll introduce the following improvements to the service.

1. Removal of original pension input amounts for the remedy period

For the tax years 2015 to 2016 through to 2021 to 2022, members will not need to enter the amount of their original pension input amount. This will reduce the amount of information a member needs to give as part of their calculation and submission.

2. Income sub-journeys

Members will be presented with additional questions throughout the submission for the service to complete the relevant calculation, if they do not know the amount of their:

• net income
• threshold income

Using the information entered as part of this new element of the journey, the service will determine if the member’s threshold income is above the threshold income limit for the relevant tax year. If so, the service will ask further questions to establish if the member is above the adjusted income limit for the relevant tax year.

If the member is above the adjusted income limit for the relevant tax year, the service will keep and use the adjusted income amounts to calculate the member’s tapered annual allowance.

3. Save and return

When the service re-opens, members will have the option to sign in using their Government Gateway user ID and save their progress to return to it later. They’ll have 9 months from when they last saved their progress, to make a submission.

After this the information will be deleted, and they’ll have to start again from the beginning.

Members who do not have a Government Gateway user ID will still be able to use the calculator but will not be able to save and return. Members can create a Government Gateway user ID.

4. Triage

We know many members who receive remedial service statements will not need to report any changes to tax charges to HMRC through the service.

We’ll be introducing a new triage process, to help members decide if they need to use the full calculator and submission service or not. 

The member will be asked a series of questions about their specific circumstances. They’ll be presented with a message telling them if, based on the information entered, they should make a submission to HMRC.

5. Updated calculation results page

We know users have found the calculation results page confusing, so we’re working on updates to make the information displayed more meaningful and easier to understand the outcome of the calculation.

Release dates

We plan to re-open the service in mid-July 2024 and include as much as possible of items 1 to 3 mentioned in this release. Then update the service in September 2024 to include items 4 and 5.

We’ll also be publishing some detailed guidance to support members using the service to give more details on what information we need at each point of the submission.

Further potential changes

Following feedback from schemes, we’re currently getting advice on whether it’s possible to add a new step to the member journey. This would allow communication between HMRC and the scheme when a member’s annual allowance charge for the tax years 2019 to 2020 through to 2021 to 2022 is reduced due to the remedy, and the scheme originally paid the charge. With member’s consent, the service would ask to give consent for HMRC to give this information directly to the scheme. The member would then not need to take any further action on the credit amount due.

We’ll continue to review the service content and make necessary updates based on user feedback.

Updates on all changes will be provided in future newsletters.

Interim process for members

While the Calculate your public service pension adjustment service is unavailable, if you have members who need to make a submission to HMRC, ask them to email publicservicepensionsremedy@hmrc.gov.uk with ‘PSPR submission request’ in the subject line.

They can also contact HMRC by telephone and select option 1.

How you can help us

We’re committed to working with schemes and are looking for volunteers to help us develop the proposed changes.

If you’re interested in talking to us, email publicservicepensionsremedy@hmrc.gov.uk with ‘Digital Service Changes’ in the subject line.

Your input will be invaluable to helping influence the future design and development of the service.