Guidance

Information pension scheme administrators must give to members

You must provide information on flexible access, pension savings, relevant benefit crystallisation events, lump sum death benefits and overseas transfers.

• From: HM Revenue & Customs
• Published: 16 September 2014
• Last updated: 16 April 2024 — See all updates

Flexible access statement

When a member flexibly accesses their money purchase pension savings (a trigger event) you must give them a flexible access statement.

You do not need to give a flexible access statement to the member if:

• you’ve already given them a flexible access statement in relation to an earlier trigger event under the scheme
• the member or the scheme administrator of another pension scheme has told you that they have previously flexibly accessed their pension rights

Information to give in the flexible access statement

You must include that:

• the member has flexibly accessed their pension savings and the date of the relevant event
• from 6 April 2017, if the member’s total pension inputs into money purchase arrangements and certain hybrid arrangements is more than the money purchase annual allowance for a tax year:
  • they will be liable to an annual allowance charge on the excess amount over the money purchase annual allowance for that tax year
  • their annual allowance for pension inputs under other types of arrangements will be covered by the alternative annual allowance
  • the member has a duty to pass on information to other pension schemes — describe the circumstances in which they must pass on that information, what information has to be passed on and the relevant time limits

When you must provide the flexible access statement

You must give the flexible access statement to the member within 31 days of the date of the relevant event. If you do not give the information on time or it’s incorrect you may be charged a penalty.

Pension savings statement

This is a statement of the amount of pension saving in the pension scheme for a tax year. If a member has more than one pension pot under the same scheme the statement must cover all of their pension pots.

You must give the member a pension savings statement if:

• their savings in a pension input period are more than the annual allowance
• you have reason to believe they have flexibly accessed their pension savings and their money purchase input amounts under the scheme exceeded the money purchase annual allowance

Even if you do not have to give a pension saving statement, a member can still ask you to give them this information.

Member has flexibly accessed their pension savings

If you have reason to believe the member has flexibly accessed their pension savings, and their money purchase input amounts under the scheme exceeded the money purchase annual allowance, you must give them a money purchase pension savings statement. You can find out what information to include in the money purchase pension savings statement in the Pensions Tax Manual.

Member has not flexibly accessed their pension savings

If the member’s savings in a pension input period are more than the annual allowance, but they have not flexibly accessed their pension savings you must give them a standard pension savings statement.

The standard pension savings statement must contain the:

• total amount of the member’s pension inputs made to the scheme in the pension input period ending in the tax year
• amount of the annual allowance for that tax year
• total amount of the member’s pension inputs made to the scheme for each of the pension input periods ending in the previous 3 tax years
• amount of the annual allowance for the previous 3 tax years

When you must provide a standard or money purchase pension savings statement

You must automatically give a standard pension savings statement to the member if either:

• the amount of their pension inputs in the scheme is more than the annual allowance
• you have no reason to believe your member has flexibly accessed their pension savings
• you believe your member has flexibly accessed their pension savings and:
  • their money purchase pension input amounts to the scheme do not exceed the money purchase annual allowance
  • the amount of their pension inputs in the scheme is more than the annual allowance

You must automatically give your member a money purchase pension savings statement if:

• you believe they have flexibly accessed their money purchase pension rights
• their money purchase pension savings for the tax year are more than the available money purchase annual allowance

You must give your member a standard or money purchase savings statement by 6 October following the end of the tax year.

If you do not have to automatically send a statement, you must give the member the information they’ve requested within 3 months. If they ask for the information before 6 July following the end of the tax year you have until 6 October to give them this information.

Sometimes you will be unable to give the pension statement within these deadlines because you’re waiting for information from another person - such as from a scheme employer. In this case you have 3 months to send the statement after you get the information.

If you do not provide the information on time or it’s incorrect you may be charged a penalty.

You can find technical guidance on pension statements in the Pensions Tax Manual.

Relevant benefit crystallisation event statement

When a relevant benefit crystallisation event (RBCE) occurs

You must tell the member how much of their lump sum allowance or lump sum and death benefit allowance the RBCEs in the scheme have used up.

The standard individuals’ lump sum allowance is £268,275 and the standard lump sum and death benefit allowance is £1,073,100. If they hold a valid protected allowance or enhancement, the amount of the allowance may be higher.

When you must provide the relevant benefit crystallisation event statement

You must provide this information at least once every tax year if:

• payment to the member’s pension started after 6 April 2024
• you’re paying a pension to the member

If you’re not paying a pension — for example because the scheme only paid a lump sum — you must provide this information within 3 months of the RBCE.

You can stop providing an annual RBCE statement in the following circumstances:

• the transfer of the member’s pension pot to another pension scheme — the receiving scheme will issue annual RBCE statements
• you’ve given pension funds to an insurance company to pay the member’s pension:
  • you tell the insurer the amount of allowance used for those funds
  • they issue the statement to the member
• if both of the following apply:
  • all funds held in respect of a member under the scheme are extinguished
  • no further pension or lump sum payments occur

If you have been providing an annual lifetime allowance statement to a member, you will now need to provide an annual RBCE statement.

You can find detailed technical guidance on RBCE statements in the Pensions Tax Manual.

Public service pensions remedy lifetime allowance charge

From 6 April 2023, the lifetime allowance charge will only apply to new or additional charges. These charges would have arisen as a result of the Public Service Pensions Remedy between 6 April 2019 and 5 April 2023. As the scheme administrator, you must report the charge and pay the tax due using the Accounting for Tax (AFT) Return.

You can find more detailed guidance on how the public service pensions remedy effects the members lifetime allowance.

You’re paying lump sum death benefits

If your scheme has paid a lump sum death benefit, where the lump sum uses up some or all the member’s lump sum and death benefit allowance, you must tell the member’s personal representative the:

• amount of the lump sum and death benefit allowance used up by the lump sum payment
• date of payment

You have 3 months to give this information to them.

The member’s personal representative may ask about other benefits the scheme paid that used up the member’s lump sum and death benefit allowance. You must give them this information within 2 months of their request.

You can find detailed technical guidance on information requirements where the scheme member has died in the Pensions Tax Manual.

Transfers to an overseas pension scheme

You need to:

• check if tax needs to be paid when a scheme member requests that you transfer their pension savings to an overseas pension scheme
• tell your scheme member within 30 days of them requesting the transfer, to give you information about the transfer — you can use form APSS263 to request this information from your member
• decide whether or not the transfer will be liable to the overseas transfer charge

Your scheme member has 60 days from their transfer request to give you the information. If they do not, you must deduct the overseas transfer charge if you make the transfer.

If tax needs to be paid, you must tell the scheme member within 3 months:

• the date of the transfer
• that an overseas transfer charge applies to the transfer
• the amount of the transfer that’s subject to the overseas transfer charge
• the amount of tax that needs to be paid
• whether you’ve paid the tax charge (or intend to do so)
• the date the tax was paid
• whether you’ve reported the tax to HMRC
• how much of their overseas transfer has been used

If there is no tax to pay, you must tell the member within 3 months of the transfer:

• why the tax has not been paid
• the date the transfer took place 
• how much of their overseas transfer allowance was used

Overseas transfer charge refunds

If you previously paid an overseas transfer charge that’s later refunded by HMRC, you must tell the scheme member within 3 months of the repayment:

• the date of the repayment
• how much was refunded to your registered pension scheme
• the reason the tax was repaid

Published 16 September 2014
Last updated 16 April 2024 + show all updates

1. 16 April 2024

   Information updated to confirm what an administrator should tell a member's personal representative where a scheme has paid lump sum death benefits.

2. 6 April 2024

   Updated to include information about lump sum allowances that will replace lifetime allowances.

3. 6 April 2023

   Information about what information to give in the flexible access statement, lifetime allowance statements and reporting zero charges on Accounting for Tax returns has been updated.

4. 6 April 2017

   Amendments made following changes to the pension tax rules reducing the money purchase annual allowance, that takes effect from 6 April 2017.

5. 8 March 2017

   Updated to include information about the overseas transfer charges.

6. 6 April 2016

   This guidance has been updated to reflect legislation changes effective from 6 April 2016 for when you must provide the standard pension savings statement, money purchase pension savings statement and annual allowance pension saving statements for 2015 to 2016 tax year.

7. 6 April 2015

   The pension scheme administrator must now give a flexible access statement to the member where the member flexibly accesses their pension savings. They must also give a pension savings statement to the member if their savings are more than the annual allowance, or if they believe that they have flexibly accessed their pension savings and money purchase input amounts under the scheme exceeded £10,000.

8. 16 September 2014

   First published.