Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Budget definition

What does Budget mean? In legal practice, Budget describes the government’s annual fiscal statement setting out the economic outlook and proposed changes to tax and public spending, which practitioners track for rate, relief and compliance changes and commencement rules. United Kingdom: The Chancellor of the Exchequer delivers the Budget to the House of Commons, now typically in the Spring (the Spring Budget). Alongside the Autumn Statement, it is a principal fiscal event. “Budget” is not defined in legislation; it is a parliamentary convention. Its legal effect arises through Ways and Means resolutions and the ensuing Finance Bill/Finance Act, with certain measures given temporary effect...

Pension overpayments in UK registered schemes: authorised exceptions, HMRC 'genuine error' safe harbour, recovery decisions, reporting and tax charges

Published by a LexisNexis Pensions expert

Practice notes

At times, pension schemes issue payments to members that do not align with scheme provisions or may infringe wider tax or legal requirements. Given the complexity of pensions, it is unsurprising that mistakes occur, most often as overpayments in practice. Trustees are obliged to reclaim as much of any overpaid sums as is reasonably achievable—for further detail, see Practice Note: Overpayment of pension benefits. Where treated as ‘unauthorised payments’, overpayments may trigger tax implications for members, schemes and employers alike.

Are overpayments unauthorised member payments?

An unauthorised member payment is, in essence, a member payment that sits outside the authorised member payment framework in section 164 of the Finance Act 2004 (FA 2004). For general guidance on authorised payments, see Practice Note: Authorised and unauthorised payments. An overpayment is treated as an unauthorised member payment unless it falls within:

an exception in the Registered Pension Schemes (Authorised Payments) Regulations 2009, SI 2009/1171 (the Authorised Payment Regs)—for more information, see Exceptions under the Authorised Payment Regs, below
HMRC’s ‘genuine error’ safe harbour—for more information, see HMRC’s safe harbour for ‘genuine errors’, below

If the overpayment is unauthorised for these purposes...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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