Sometimes when dealing with government departments it feels like we get the worst of both worlds. With Self Assessment, not only do UK taxpayers have to calculate their own tax, they must fill in their return and submit it themselves (or pay someone else to do so). You can be forgiven for thinking that we’re doing the taxman’s job for him. However, if you look closely enough at government websites, there is some help and information available from the government that can assist you in your financial planning. Admittedly, the details of this help seem to be hidden away among the pages of official websites. But to get your money’s worth out of the government, it is worthwhile having a look at the DirectGov website.
Ask not what you can do for the taxman, but what the taxman can do for you!
First, if you are planning your retirement at home or overseas, you can get a state pension forecast to work out how much your state pension will yield. A link to the appropriate department is available at www.directgov.uk. A forecast is not available if you are less than four months away from retirement, but most other people should be able to get some useful information out of the site. Simply type in your details and let the system do the work. The online calculator will want to know about how many years you have worked abroad, your National Insurance number, whether you are married or have a civil partner, and how many years you have worked in the UK. The online service is only available to people who live in the UK, and provides an estimate rather than a guaranteed figure. However, it is a useful tool in planning for your retirement.
How else can the government help you with your pensions planning? Perhaps you have lost track of a pension scheme that you were a member of at some point during your career. This is easy enough to do when people move jobs so often. No matter how small you suspect the value of the fund may be, it is your hard earned money so you might as well track it down. The Pension Tracing Service can assist you with this task. Whether the scheme that you have lost is a personal or an occupational one, they will look for your missing pension. Just give them details of your National Insurance number and as much information about the personal scheme or your former employer as you can remember. Then the government can do the detective work on your behalf.
