I could do with some advice from the community on how the CMS calculate pension contributions from source and the tax year this is calculated from.
I am 55 and in Nov 23 I started contributing to a private SIPP pension, it is the first time I have contributed to a pension since 2007 and the pot was halved during divorce settlement.
Financial advice was given my age I need to be contributing at least 25% of my salary every month into this new pension, and it is taken at source by my employer (gross).
CMS asked to see a letter from my employer confirming this, three months of wage slips (Sept, Oct, Nov 23) to show pension now deducted and a statement from the pension company confirming payment of pension, all of which I uploaded in Dec 23.
I then heard nothing, and despite numerous letters they sat on the application. My MP then wrote to them and two weeks ago they picked my case up again, apologised for not assessing it sooner, and in a letter to my MP, said they were going to pay me compensation!
They then asked for a full year of wage slips - April 23 to March 24 and said they now had everything they needed.
Today I received a letter saying "We have previously acknowledged the pay slips you had sent us for the period April 2023 to March 2024.
Having now reviewed our policy we need to look at any bonus paid in the past 12 months and as your change occurred on 28 November 2023, the relevant period would be from November 2022 to October 2023. Please can you therefore upload copies of your pay slips for November and December 2022 and January, February and March 2023."
Is this right? If a change of income, due to a pension contribution, is made in one tax year do they also need to take into account the previous tax year too? They can see from HMRC my total income for both tax years, why the need for additional information? Am I missing something here?
AB
hi,
if you earned bonuses during the year and if that increased your income by 25% or more, they would expect you to let them know asap. It could be they are just following process, or your ex is asking them to check your income again e.g. about bonuses.
some info: Whenever we use a gross income figure given to us by a paying parent, their employer or a third party when we work out child maintenance, we carry out a separate check to confirm that the amount of income used is still correct. This is called the 'periodic current income check'. This is separate from the Annual Review
theres another thread that could be useful: https://www.dad.info/forum/child-maintenance/fluctuating-pay-periodic-income-check/
@bill337 Thank you for this. Neither applies in my case. HMRC knows exactly how much I earn as I have uploaded now 12 months of wage slips for the current tax year.