If you are over 65 do you get a higher personal allowance? This is a question which many pensioners may wonder about as they have heard that this might be the case.

Unfortunately the current answer to this is only a small amount, only if you are over 75 and only if you earn under a certain amount.

In the past both those over 65 and those over 75 were entitled to a higher tax free allowance than those who were under 65. However, those extra allowances have been phased out coinciding with the increase in the personal allowance for everybody. The last part of that phase is happening this year (2015/16) whereby those over 75 at 6 April are entitled to a personal allowance of £10,660 rather than the standard personal allowance of £10,600.

However, if you are in that category and have earnings in excess of £27,700 (and earnings means things like pension income), then your extra amount of personal allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 of income you receive over this amount, to the minimal level of £10,600.

From 2016/17 onwards there will only be a single personal allowance rate for all ages and that will be £10,800 for 2016/17.