By James Rodger

Copyright birminghammail

The state pension is set to rise by £562 but some older retirees risk a letter from HMRC thanks to a £36 rule. The s tate pension is set to rise by £562 next April – but state pensioners run the risk of being caught up in the clutches of HMRC. The new flat rate state pension – which is for those who reached pension age after April 2016 – is expected to increase to £241.05 a week. This marks an increase of £10.65, and will see the total yearly payment rise to £12,534.60. That is an increase of £561.60 compared to now. But the standard personal allowance is the amount of income you are allowed each year without paying tax and is locked at £12,570. READ MORE UK households told ‘switch lights off’ with epidemic spreading across England It means anyone with £36 next year runs the risk of a HMRC bill. Pat McFadden, the new Labour Party government Work and Pensions Secretary, said this morning the Labour government is committed to maintaining the Triple Lock for the course of this Parliament. “It is estimated that will mean a rise in the State Pension of around £1,900 a year by the end of the Parliament. That’s a commitment from the Labour government to the UK’s pensioners. It’s something that we said we’d do at the election and something that we will keep to.” But Steve Webb, partner at pension consultants LCP said: “The standard rate of the new state pension is creeping ever closer to the frozen personal tax allowance. ” Mr Webb added: “It is already the case that nearly three quarters of all pensioners pay income tax, and the ongoing freeze in tax thresholds coupled with steady rises in the pension will drag more and more into the tax net”. Mike Ambery, retirement savings director at Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group said the planned uplift will be “some comfort for pensioners grappling with rising bills and the lingering effect of inflation on everyday essentials.” “However, a full new state pension of £12,534.60 will also be over 99% of the personal allowance, currently frozen at £12,570 until 2028 – by contrast, in 2021/22 the new state pension was equivalent to 74% of the allowance. “This means pensioners will need just £35.40 of other income before paying income tax.” Mike said: “The personal allowance rose fairly rapidly as a percentage of average earnings in the just over a decade before 2020, from 23.61% in the 2007-2008 tax year to just under 45% in 2020. Since 2020, a combination of freezes and inflation has seen this decline meaning a greater percentage of income is taxable. “For pensioners paying the higher rate of tax, the value of the £561.60 rise will be eroded to around £337.”