Pensioners caught in tax code glitch

HMRC warned that people who started to claim their state pension during the 2009/2010 tax year may have been given the wrong tax code for this April, meaning they could pay too little or too much tax.

But it does not know how many people have been affected by the problem, and could not say how much people may be overcharged by.

It is also thought married couples and civil partners aged 76 and over could lose their married couples allowance, which was worth up to 6,965 during the current tax year, due to the glitch.

The problem has been caused by the introduction of a new computer system, which combines information on people's National Insurance contributions and the Pay As You Earn scheme for the first time.

In some cases, the system appears not to have information on people leaving jobs, meaning those who have stopped working and started drawing a pension are being treated as if they have two income streams.

An HMRC spokeswoman said: "We accept and very much regret that errors have occurred in some of the notices that have issued but the majority of codes are right.

"If any customer has concerns about the accuracy of their coding notice they should contact us so that we can review and correct as necessary."