Overview
- The Chancellor said pensioners with no income beyond the state pension will not pay income tax or complete Self-Assessment during this Parliament.
- Officials are working on a simple workaround to avoid pursuing very small tax amounts once the state pension exceeds the personal allowance.
- The full new State Pension rises by 4.8% from April to about £12,548 a year, with projections suggesting it will overtake the £12,570 personal allowance around 2027.
- Roughly one million state-only recipients are expected to benefit, while reporting cites about 2.5 million on the older system already paying income tax on their state pension.
- Pension Credit increases 4.8% to roughly £238 per week (about £12,376 a year), which also opens access to additional means-tested support.