The secret £720 boost to pensions

THE TAX office offers married couples a generous annual pension boost, yet thousands may be completely unaware it exists.

- Katie Elliott

Under little-known rules, if you contribute to your partner's pension, HMRC automatically tops up the contribution by up to £720 each tax year. Put in £2,880 (the maximum contribution) on your partner's behalf, and the Government bumps it up to £3,600. Surprisingly, new research from Hargreaves Lansdown shows that only 34% of people even know this perk exists.

Among those aged 55 and above - the group closest to drawing pensions awareness slumps to just one in four.

That lack of take-up is worrying because the pension gap between genders remains stark.