If you’ve landed here after seeing headlines or searching for Alan Perkins state pension tax, you’re not alone. This topic has blown up because it hits a nerve for many UK pensioners: you budget carefully, you assume your pension is straightforward, and then an HMRC letter arrives that feels out of nowhere.

This article is a full, practical explanation of what the Alan Perkins state pension tax story actually means in real life.

Why these bills happen, how HMRC collects tax on the State Pension, what a P800 or Simple Assessment really indicates, and exactly how to check whether your tax position is right. Let’s explore it step by step, so you finish reading with clarity and a plan.

Alan Perkins State Pension Tax

If you searched Alan Perkins state pension tax, you’re really asking one thing: How can someone who relies on the State Pension end up owing HMRC income tax?

In the Alan Perkins state pension tax case, the bill happened because the UK State Pension counts as taxable income, but is usually paid gross (without tax taken off at source).

So HMRC collects any tax due later, often through your tax code on another pension, or via a P800 or Simple Assessment bill if there isn’t another PAYE income stream to tax. When total taxable income rises above the Personal Allowance, an underpayment can appear as a surprise bill.

That single mechanism, taxable but paid gross, explains most “why do I owe HMRC?” State Pension stories. Now let’s go deeper, using the Alan Perkins case as a practical lens and walking through exactly how the system works, where it goes wrong, and what you can do to protect yourself.

Who is Alan Perkins and why did he receive an ~£800 tax bill?

Media coverage described a 71-year-old man, Alan Perkins, receiving an unexpected income tax bill (often reported around the £800 mark) connected to his pension income.

The story resonated because it matches a common UK pattern: someone believes they are “only on the State Pension,” then receives a bill and assumes HMRC has made a mistake, exactly the concern driving searches for Alan Perkins state pension tax.

In many cases like this, the key detail is hidden in what “State Pension” means in practice. Your payments can include elements beyond the headline full new State Pension rate, such as protected payments from the old system, additional State Pension entitlements, or uplifted amounts from deferral.

Those extras can push taxable income above the Personal Allowance and trigger tax, even if you don’t think of them as another pension.

The “I only get my State Pension” misconception and why it can still trigger tax?

People usually mean one of three things when they say “only State Pension”:

1. No workplace/private pension
2. No paid work
3. No other income at all

But HMRC cares about what’s taxable, not what feels like income. A few examples of taxable items that can exist alongside the State Pension without you thinking of them as another income include:

• A small workplace pension you forgot about (or a spouse’s pension paid to you after bereavement, depending on the type).
• Bank/building society interest above allowances (or interest not covered by allowances in your situation).
• Some taxable benefits or payments.
• A second pension is paid annually (making it easier to overlook).
• A State Pension amount that includes protected/additional elements beyond the standard full rate.

The moment your total taxable income exceeds your available allowances, tax becomes due, regardless of whether you feel you live only on the State Pension.

Is the UK State Pension taxable?

Yes. The UK State Pension is taxable income. That doesn’t mean everyone pays tax on it, because tax depends on your overall taxable income and allowances, but it does mean it’s part of the calculation.

What the taxable but paid gross rule means in real life?

Here’s the crucial quirk:

• Your State Pension is normally paid without tax deducted.
• HMRC still expects any tax due on it to be paid.
• So HMRC collects that tax by:
  • Adjusting your tax code on another PAYE source (like a workplace pension), or
  • Issuing a bill such as a P800 or a Simple Assessment, or
  • Using Self Assessment if you’re within that system.

This is why pensioners can feel blindsided: The tax is real, but the collection method can lag behind changes in income.

Why would someone with only State Pension end up owing HMRC?

To answer this properly, you need two numbers:

• Your annual State Pension amount.
• The Personal Allowance for the relevant tax year.

For 2025/26, the Personal Allowance is £12,570. The full new State Pension weekly rate for 2025/26 is £230.25 per week.

Annualised across 52 weeks, that’s £11,973, below £12,570. So if you truly receive only the full new State Pension and nothing else taxable, you’d usually be under the allowance.

So why the bills? This is the practical core of Alan Perkins state pension tax.

• Your State Pension can be higher than the headline full rate.
  • Some people receive more than the standard full new State Pension due to protected amounts (for example, where entitlements under the old system were higher, or due to other pension history).
  • If your State Pension alone rises above the Personal Allowance, then tax can be due even if you have no other income.
• You have additional taxable income that doesn’t feel like income.
  • A small occupational pension, interest, or occasional earnings can tip you over.
• Your tax code didn’t reflect the State Pension accurately (or quickly enough).
  • HMRC usually relies on estimates during the year. If those estimates are off, you can end up with an underpayment that gets corrected after the year ends.

Additional State Pension/protected payments and why they matter?

A common “hidden driver” is that your State Pension figure is not always just the base new State Pension.

Depending on your National Insurance history and transitions from the old system, you might have a protected element that sits on top of the standard amount. You still see one payment from the DWP, but for tax it’s all taxable pension income.

If you’re not sure whether your State Pension is above the full new rate, your annual State Pension statement (or your payment letters) will show the weekly amount.

Multiply by 52 to get a quick annual estimate (it won’t be perfect to the penny because payment schedules vary, but it’s close enough to check whether you’re near the allowance line).

Personal Allowance and fiscal drag why more pensioners get caught?

When allowances stay fixed while pensions rise, more people drift into paying tax, even if their lifestyle hasn’t changed. This is often called “fiscal drag.”

The practical effect is simple: if your pension rises by (say) a few hundred pounds a year and your allowance doesn’t, you can cross from “no tax due” to “tax due” without any deliberate change on your part.

And because the State Pension is paid gross, that shift can show up later as a bill.

How does HMRC actually collect tax on the State Pension?

Understanding this is the difference between panic and control. If you’re here because of Alan Perkins state pension tax, this is the section that makes the whole situation “click.”

Why the State Pension is paid gross and what that causes?

Your State Pension generally arrives with no tax taken off, even if you owe tax overall. That’s not a loophole, it’s just how it’s administered. HMRC then tries to collect the correct amount through other mechanisms.

3 collection routes explained: PAYE tax code, Simple Assessment, Self Assessment

Important nuance (especially for Scotland): Income tax rates on non-savings income differ in Scotland. The collection mechanics are similar, but the tax calculation may differ depending on your residency and the type of income. If you’re close to the threshold, the exact bill can change with tax bands.

P800 vs Simple Assessment: what letter are you likely to get and what does it mean?

People often lump these together as an HMRC bill, but they’re not the same.

A P800 often arrives because something changed mid-year or because HMRC used an estimate. A Simple Assessment is more like: “We know you owe tax; here’s the bill.”

How to check if your State Pension tax is wrong?

Here’s the part most articles don’t spell out clearly enough: what to check, in what order, using which numbers.

Use this approach before you assume HMRC is right or wrong.

Your 5-number check:

1. Annual State Pension amount (weekly amount × ~52)
2. Any other taxable pension income (P60 totals for workplace/private pensions)
3. Any earnings (P60/P45 if applicable)
4. Total taxable income vs your allowances (Personal Allowance, plus any relevant adjustments like Marriage Allowance transfer if it applies in your case)
5. Your tax code logic (if you have another PAYE source, does the code reflect your State Pension?)

Where errors usually happen?:

• HMRC uses an estimated State Pension figure early in the year and it changes later.
• You start/stop a pension mid-year.
• A pension provider applies a code late or applies an emergency code temporarily.
• HMRC receives information out of sequence (especially around April uprating).
• You have more than one PAYE source, and the code is attached to the “wrong” one.

If you want the simplest litmus test: If your State Pension plus other taxable income is clearly under your allowances, and you still get a bill, that’s when you should investigate carefully.

What should you do if you get an unexpected tax bill?

This is the practical, do this next section. If you’re reading because of Alan Perkins state pension tax, this is where you turn confusion into a plan.

Immediate actions in the right order

• Match the tax year on the letter to your records (wrong-year confusion is surprisingly common).
• Compare the income figures on the notice to your pension statements/P60s.
• Check allowances applied (Personal Allowance is the big one; also check if you have any specific reliefs that should apply).
• If you agree it’s right, plan payment, including asking for a payment arrangement if needed.
• If you disagree, challenge quickly with clear evidence (pension letters, P60s, bank records of payments, and any HMRC coding notices you received).

If you agree, how does HMRC typically collect it?

If the bill is correct, HMRC may collect it in one of a few ways:

• You pay directly (often for Simple Assessment).
• HMRC adjusts a tax code in a later year (where feasible and within limits).
• You agree a payment plan if you can’t pay in one go.

If cash flow is tight, the key is to contact HMRC early and propose an affordable schedule. In practice, “I can’t pay this in one go, but I can pay £X per month” is often a better starting point than silence.

If you disagree, how to challenge the calculation and what evidence helps?

Disputes tend to succeed when they are specific, not emotional. Focus on:

• This pension amount is wrong because…
• This income is double-counted because…
• This allowance wasn’t applied because…

Evidence that helps:

• Pension award letters showing weekly amounts and start dates.
• P60s from pension providers (annual totals).
• Bank statements showing payment dates (useful for start/stop disputes).
• Copies of coding notices (to show what HMRC assumed during the year).

If you can’t pay, what to ask for?

If the bill is correct but unaffordable in one payment, ask about:

• Time to pay arrangements (structured instalments).
• Aligning repayments with your pension pay schedule where possible.
• Whether a future-year tax code adjustment is an option (depends on your PAYE situation).

How to reduce the risk of another underpayment next year?

Most underpayments are preventable with two habits: checking your tax code logic and rechecking after income changes.

Keeping HMRC updated on pension changes plus checking coding notices

If you have a workplace/private pension alongside the State Pension, HMRC commonly collects State Pension tax by reducing your tax code on the other pension. That can be perfectly fine if the numbers are right.

What to watch for:

• Does the tax code include a deduction that looks like your State Pension amount?
• Did your State Pension amount rise in April, and did the code update later?
• Did you start or stop a pension during the year?

A small mismatch across 12 months can easily turn into a few hundred pounds of underpaid tax.

Common scenarios with typical outcomes

Here’s where “depth” really matters: the same rule behaves differently depending on your setup.

Scenario	Typical outcome	Surprise-bill risk
Full new State Pension only	Usually under Personal Allowance (2025/26)	Low (unless protected amounts push it over)
State Pension + small workplace pension	Tax coded through the workplace pension	Medium (coding lag/estimates)
State Pension + part-time work	PAYE may not balance cleanly	Medium–High
More than one pension provider	Codes can be applied to the “wrong” pension	Medium–High
Near the allowance line	Small changes flip tax due/no tax due	High

A realistic worked example of why £800-ish bills can happen?

Imagine your taxable income is above your Personal Allowance by £4,000 in a year. At a 20% basic rate, that’s £800 tax due.

If that £800 wasn’t collected during the year (because the State Pension was paid gross and the code didn’t capture it accurately), it can surface later as a bill. This is the “shape” of many stories like Alan Perkins’.

Will more pensioners pay tax going forward?

This is where the Alan Perkins story becomes bigger than one person, and why Alan Perkins state pension tax keeps becoming a headline-shaped question.

As pensions rise and allowances don’t, more pensioners cross thresholds. That creates three downstream effects:

1. More people newly paying tax,
2. More complexity around codes and corrections,
3. More headlines about “tax shock” bills.

There’s also been public discussion and political signalling about shielding people whose only income is the State Pension from income tax, particularly if the State Pension rises above allowances in future. But policy promises and implementation details are not the same thing, especially when you consider edge cases like:

• Someone with £1 of bank interest over an allowance,
• A tiny workplace pension or,
• A protected amount in the State Pension itself.

The real-world consequence: Even if future rules change, the boundary cases will still need careful handling, and only the State Pension will still need a precise definition.

What do people talk about Alan Perkins’ issue online?

Final summary

The entire Alan Perkins State Pension tax story boils down to one system reality: the UK State Pension is taxable, but it’s usually paid gross, and HMRC often collects tax due later, through a tax code adjustment, a P800 correction, or a Simple Assessment bill.

If your total taxable income rises above your allowances, sometimes because your State Pension is higher than the standard full rate due to protected/additional elements, you can legitimately owe tax even if you feel you live only on the State Pension.

Here’s what you can do next:

• Add up your taxable income for the year and compare it to your allowances.
• If you have another PAYE pension, check your tax code logic.
• If a bill arrives, verify the figures first, then either pay, arrange instalments, or challenge with evidence.

Alan Perkins state pension tax is not about a special tax rule for one person; it’s a high-visibility example of how taxable State Pension income is collected in a way that can feel delayed and surprising when codes and estimates don’t line up.

FAQ

Do you pay tax if the State Pension is your only income?

In many cases, no, especially when the annual State Pension amount is below the Personal Allowance. But you can pay tax if your State Pension (including any protected/additional elements) exceeds your allowances, or if your total taxable income crosses the threshold due to other taxable items.

Why is my State Pension being taxed through my private pension tax code?

Because the State Pension is usually paid gross, HMRC often collects the tax due by reducing your tax code on another PAYE income stream (like a workplace/private pension). That causes more tax to be deducted from the other pension to cover the State Pension tax.

Do I need to file Self Assessment because I get the State Pension?

Not automatically. Many pensioners never file a return. HMRC can collect tax through PAYE codes, P800 calculations, or Simple Assessment bills. Self-assessment is typically for more complex situations or where HMRC requires it.

What is additional State Pension / protected payments, and is it taxable?

If it’s part of your State Pension entitlement and paid to you as pension income, it’s generally taxable in the same way as the rest of your State Pension. It can also be the reason your State Pension is higher than the headline full new State Pension rate.

Author expertise note

Written by a UK personal finance content specialist who regularly covers HMRC pension tax rules (tax codes, P800s and Simple Assessments). This is educational guidance, not personalised tax advice; check with HMRC or a qualified adviser for your situation.