HMRC's Dodgy Pensions Calculator Nixed

HMRC is giving pension savers incorrect information which could result in them missing out on reliefs worth tens of thousands of pounds.

As a result of this screw up, HMRC has been forced to take down a calculator that was drastically underestimating the amount people can save into their pensions.

Royal London has uncovered a calculator that said one customer has an annual allowance of just £10,000, when it should have been £35,000.

Royal London found the calculator was producing the wrong figures for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 tax years. HMRC has admitted the errors and said it has since taken the calculator offline.

An HMRC spokesman is quoted by the Telegraph:

"We are sorry that the calculator isn’t working as it should in some cases. 

The calculator is no longer available as it is being updated." 

HMRC advised individuals to use its online guidance documents to manually calculate their annual allowance.

Royal London's Steve Webb, a former pensions minister, said it was "totally unacceptable" for a government website to operate "when it contains blunders of this sort".

"It is beyond belief that they are knowingly allowing taxpayers to get incorrect information from their website and potentially to make major financial decisions on the strength of dodgy data."

I can't wait for MTD!