Age exception certificates CA4140
20 March 2014
As from 31 December 2013 HMRC stopped issuing age exception certificates CA4140 and confirmed that employers do not have to have to request a CA4140 to stop deducting Class 1 Primary National Insurance Contributions.
An item published in the September 2013 Employer Bulletin 45 (P18) covered the subject of age exception certificates and prompted debate from CIPP members.
So to clarify, HMRC no longer issue the CA4140 certificates. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) however, has not withdrawn the application form for an age exception certificate from their pension pack for new pension claims and so an individual can, if they wish, apply for an age exception certificate from the DWP. HMRC has confirmed that they do not have any requirement that employers should expect employees to obtain an age exception certificate by that route. And although DWP are still issuing the pack to employees approaching pensionable age, they won’t now direct customers to HMRC to apply for the certificate.
In future, employers should use sight of the passport or birth certificate as evidence to support the non-payment of National Insurance. As set out in the Employer Bulletin there are some exceptional circumstances where HMRC will still provide the employer with a letter confirming an individual’s State Pension Age. Cases for example where there may be sensitive information contained within those documents which the employee does not wish to divulge to the employer.
Once the employer has obtained confirmation of the date of birth, they can check when their employee will reach State Pension age by using the government’s State Pension calculator. Anyone can use this calculator to work out when you will reach State Pension age or Pension Credit qualifying age and how much you may get in today’s money for your basic State Pension.