Tony Hetherington is the Financial Mail on Sunday’s top researcher, taking on readers’ corners, uncovering the truth that lies behind closed doors and delivering victories for those left out of their own pockets. Below you can read how you can contact him.
PT writes: HM Revenue & Customs informed me that I had underpaid tax in 2022-2023 because I had received over £14,000 in tax-free savings interest. The savings figure was provided to HMRC by National Savings.
Unfortunately, I don’t have such a bill or interest. It’s fictional.
I have contacted the tax authorities but have now been told that the Pay As You Earn tax code for my work pension is being changed, leaving me around £500 a month worse off and reducing my pension by around a third.
Tony Hetherington replies: Once the tax juggernaut starts rolling, it’s very difficult to hit the brakes. Your first inkling that something was wrong came when you received a request for £2,751, which was said to be taxable on interest of £14,750. All the tax authorities could tell you was that the amount came from National Savings, but the officials couldn’t help you either because you couldn’t give them the account number of the account you didn’t have in the first place.
Money grab: the tax official has wrongly left our reader worse off
You sent a letter to National Savings & Investments (NS&I) and received a written response that there was no account in your name. But by then the tax authorities had changed course and decided to take an extra £500 from your pension every month.
Employees assured you that you will not suffer in the long term if NS&I’s tip is incorrect. But that is little consolation if you simply lose such a large part of your pension.
I asked HMRC to investigate this and they acted with commendable speed. Three days after I contacted them, you received a phone call from the tax office, apologizing and offering compensation of £75 and giving you a new PAYE code. Instead of €2,751 you owe €1.80p. NS&I routinely informs the tax authorities about the high interest that savers earn, and the tax authorities then link the tip to the taxpayer’s data. In a nutshell: someone actually received £14,750 in interest, but HMRC accidentally linked it to you
I have been waiting for my pension amount for over a year
Mrs AS writes: I was due to receive a lump sum pension of £19,417 from Phoenix Life on my 75th birthday, which was in January last year. I was also due to receive £3,010 in January this year.
I haven’t received a cent.
I now have a thick file of correspondence and emails, in addition to the phone calls I have endured over the past year. Every time I’m sure someone will call me back, but that never happens.
I have terminal lung disease. Time is not on my side. I am desperate.
Pathetic: After weeks of waiting and fruitless phone calls, it turned out that Phoenix had actually sent the request to his own address
Tony Hetherington replies: In so many large companies, it’s hard to find someone who will actually take responsibility for solving a problem, rather than handing it off to someone else in an endless game of passing the problem.
You told me that at one point Phoenix claimed to be waiting for a response from the administrators of your old employer’s pension plan. After weeks of waiting and fruitless phone calls, it turned out that Phoenix had actually sent the application to her own address and not to your old employer.
On another occasion, you told me, Phoenix sent you forms. You filled them out and sent them back, only for Phoenix to tell you that the forms should have gone to the pension plan administrators. That happened last August, but in October exactly the same forms arrived on your doorstep again, and again they were intended for the curators.
The final straw before you contacted me came when you called Phoenix three times, and each time you were told that the person handling your claim was on the phone and would get back to you.
He never did, and when you called a fourth time you were told that he had been on a course for two months and would contact you when he returned.
I contacted Phoenix on your behalf and four days later £23,391 was in your bank account. These were your arrears, minus the income tax withheld at source. Phoenix initially offered £200 as an apology, and £20 to cover all your phone calls and any other costs.
This was pathetic. It didn’t even scratch the surface of what you could reasonably expect, and I said so. Phoenix has reconsidered his opinion. It has now paid you £1,652 in interest on the late payments, with a further £1,025 in compensation for the upset.
But in a final, rather bizarre twist to all of this, you received one final letter from Phoenix, thanking you for your recent request to change your name. You told me that you had the same name since you got married 56 years ago, and that you have no intention of changing it now. Phoenix explained to me that it had just noticed that the administration had never listed your middle name, so the information had been changed, but you should never have contacted them or worried about this.
A spokesperson told me: ‘It is clear from the findings of our investigation that the service we have provided to Mrs S has fallen significantly short of what she would expect, particularly at a time when she has needed our help, and we are very sorry for the upset and distress this has caused her at an extremely difficult time.”
If you believe you have been a victim of financial misconduct, please write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large number of questions, personal answers cannot be given. Only send copies of original documents. Unfortunately, these cannot be returned.
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