30 July 2026
If you are covering the latest pension tax repayment statistics from HMRC, please find below a comment from Adam Cole, retirement specialist at Quilter:
“HMRC’s latest figures show that between April and June 2026 more than 12,500 people had to reclaim tax after accessing their pension flexibly, with more than £50.3m repaid in the second quarter of the year. While the number of reclaim forms is down marginally compared with the same period last year, the total amount repaid has jumped by nearly £2m.
“The average repayment stands at almost £4,000, not an insignificant amount of money, and is money that could be put to work sooner and to better use. Instead, retirees are being left out of pocket while they wait for HMRC to return their own money, a process that could and should be quicker or avoided altogether.
“All of this is happening at a time when pressures are rising on retirees, despite the triple lock. The new government has backed away for now from the idea that the personal allowance should be unfrozen and uplifted, a move that would help pensioners and reduce their administrative burden given how close the state pension is to that allowance. As emergency tax codes are applied to the first payment of a flexibly accessed pension this continues to mean a mismatch between the tax deducted and what is actually owed”.
“To HMRC’s credit, it has improved the speed of repayments and looked to improve its tax coding, these figures show that overpayments are a scourge it is struggling to fix. Pension freedoms have been in place for over a decade now, but we still haven’t found a satisfactory answer to the tax question. Until it better reflects how people actually access their money in retirement, thousands of savers will continue to face unnecessary complexity and cashflow disruption. In the meantime, careful planning and professional advice remain essential to avoid paying too much tax at the point of withdrawal.”
