Tax, Benefits And The Meaning Of Life

[wolf63]

My contributory ESA has ended and I won't be entitled to the income based one.

Will the DWP send notification of this change direct to the Tax people ?

What is counted as taxable income? Income protection policies - is this taxable.

Thanks

[factor-fiction]

Did you mean JSA rather than ESA?
They will send you a P45 (eventually)
JSA is a taxable but I don't think the tax is ever deducted at source so you may owe some tax, although that depends on lots of other factors.
I'm not sure whether income protection policies count as income.
In fact if you were receiving I'd have expected your JSA to have been reduced accordingly.
I suggest you wait until you get your p60 for the tax year that just finished and your P45 and send it to the HMRC so they can sort your code out and work out any underpayment/refund due

[wolf63]

f-f I was on Incapacity Benefit which became ESA and then after 365 days it disappeared.

I wasn't paying tax on the ESA but it took up most of my personal allowance and I was paying tax on my Occupational Pension (payable since I was 40 - in 2003).

I spent 24 years working for DWP and paying out benefits and I really didn't appreciate how complex it all is. Now that my brain doesn't work too well (Bipolar + Lithium combination) I find it all too difficult to get my head around.

Thanks

PS why the new user name? I liked factor30 with your yellow sun.

[factor-fiction]

I've taken your comments on board and reverted to my sunny face today as the sun is shining.
I think it is normal now for pensions (other than the state pension) to have tax deducted at source. If you have no other income then there must be an HMRC form you can fill in to get the money gross. It should be straightforward now as it's a new tax year.
Things might change when you start to get a state pension since that will be taxable but I assume that's many years away