The economic landscape across Britain could not be more challenging than the current period, with energy, living and mortgage costs taking a toll on household savings across the nation. As a result, a quarter of retired adults are now considering part-time jobs in order to make ends meet – with one-in-six retirees having already returned to work. UK inflation is currently rising at a near 40-year record pace, and mortgage lenders are increasing mortgage rates as a result – with research from iPlace Global revealing that almost a quarter of homeowners are looking at changing mortgage deals simply because they can’t keep up with payments. As financial hardship continues to ravage Brits’ pockets, UK consumer confidence fell to a record low in September – the worst reading since 1974.

In light of this, Tommy Mcnally, leading tax expert and CEO of Tommys Tax, urges the 37 million PAYE workers to make use of their tax returns in order to alleviate some of the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis. Billions of tax goes unclaimed every year, while new data found that in Q2 this year, thousands of Brits were owed £3,363 by HMRC due to overpaying pension tax – totalling around £33 million in tax returns.

A majority of families across Britain will be looking to make use of their tax returns this year, given that household savings have already halved since the start of the year, according to reports. In addition to the recent tax changes in chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget, followed swiftly by prime minister Liz Truss’ scrap of the 45p top rate, experts like Tommy are warning that HMRC must prepare for the potential rush in the next few months in order to reduce the chances of delays and backlogs amidst one of the worst living crisis’ Britain has ever seen.

The deadline for paper tax returns is on October 31 2022, while for online returns, the deadline is January 31 2023.