Warning for anyone aged over 55 who could be owed £3,000 tax back – are you one of them?

BRITS over the age of 55 could be up to owed up to £3,000 from the government .

That's because anyone accessing their retirement savings from this age could be overpaying tax.

People who access one-off lump sums from their pension are taxed as if that will be their monthly income - meaning they often pay far too much.

This applies to a workplace or personal pension, which is different to the government-paid state pension.

The latest official figures show that between January and March this year HMRC processed 15,800 tax refund claims.

The total amount repaid during the three month period was £48.5million.

This takes the average payment to £3,061 per person - but the exact amount you can get back if you overpay depends on how much money you took from your pension, what other income you have (if any) and your tax rate.

In fact since pension freedoms were introduced in 2015 - giving people more flexible access to their savings - more than £1billion has been overpaid.

Steve Webb, Partner at LCP said: "We are not talking about small sums, with over £1 billion being paid back by HMRC so far. 

"Reform of the system is long overdue so that it works to the benefit of pension savers and not the Treasury”.

While Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown said it is "shocking that this issue has not been dealt with".

"It adds unnecessary confusion with thousands of people every quarter having to reclaim their own money after being overtaxed – it risks undermining people’s retirement plans and leaving them short of cash in the short-term", she added.

Flexible pension access lets you draw down a portion of your retirement savings - while leaving the rest to continue gaining interest.

Most people can take up to a quarter of their savings as a tax-free lump sum, but anything over that amount will be taxed.