Annual increment triggering pension tax bill

[Melchett01]

Received a rather unwelcome letter this morning saying I had incurred a tax charge linked to my pension. Apparently simply by moving up the increments as a mi-level, standard pay spine sqn ldr was enough to exceed the annual allowance.

The letter references a DIN that talks about annual allowances and by sheer coincidence I saw a copy earlier in the week, but that suggested that exceeding the annual allowance would be more likely on promotion or if you are sufficiently senior e.g. gp capt / air cdre level. And this is why I find it difficult to understand why individuals as low down the food chain as an OF3 being stung simply for incremental progression.

I'm clearly going to have to sort out FPS membership as well as crunching the numbers myself - there's something that doesn't seem quite right in the space of 2 consecutive tax periods one year I undershot the annual allowance by 34k and whilst the following year I exceeded it by 2k. I'd love to know how those numbers have been worked out if there's been no promotion or significant pay rise above and beyond moving up an increment and getting the usual 1%

Fortunately I don't have to actually stump up cash it seems as I can carry forward previous year's unused allowance but it does seem a bit odd, if not a little insidious, for relatively junior / mid ranking individuals rather than pensions 'fat cats' being stung like this. Anybody else had experience of this lately? Are Veterans UK pensions calculations usually accurate or is this likely to be a mistake given the fluctuating values? It's going to get rather tedious rather quickly if this is going to turn into an annual bill.