Pensioners: Income Tax
(asked on 24th February 2026) - View Source
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the cumulative number of pensioners who will be liable for income tax between 2026 and 2031 as a result of the the Personal Allowance threshold being frozen; and what assessment she has made of the total additional tax revenue from those of pensionable age over this period.
The number of people forecast to pay tax by marginal rate can be found in Table 3.19 in the OBR’s November 2025 Economic and fiscal outlook – detailed forecast tables: receipts, linked below:
The previous Government made the decision to maintain income tax thresholds at their current levels from April 2021 until April 2028 and this is reflected in the numbers.
The Chancellor has said that those whose only income is the basic or new State Pension without any increments will not have to pay income tax over this Parliament. At the Budget, the Government announced that it will achieve this by easing the administrative burden for pensioners so that they do not have to pay small amounts of tax via Simple Assessment from 2027/28. The Government will set out more details in due course.