HM Revenue and Customs has apologised to around 1.7 million state pensioners after admitting its own software taxed them on a pension figure it was never meant to use.
The fault lies in the self-assessment system. For pensioners who file a return, HMRC's online tool was pre-filling state pension income at 52 weeks of the new, higher rate. Its own published guidance says the entry should be one week at the old rate and 51 weeks at the new one, as the Daily Express first reported.
