Cambridgeshire Police Federation members who retired between 2011 and September 2015 are being asked to check their pension statements for incorrectly applied charges.
The branch wants to ensure that retired members have not paid a scheme sanction charge because of an unauthorised payment.
An unauthorised payment happens when a commutation lump sum is above the threshold allowed by HMRC.
Unauthorised payments have been happening since 2011 when commutation factors rose and the size of the lump sum increased.
There is a tax charge of 40 per cent of the unauthorised payment payable by the member and a further 15 per cent scheme sanction charge, which should be paid by the scheme.
As guidance from HMRC in 2011 was unclear, some scheme managers passed this charge on to the member.
Retired members who paid tax on their commutation should have received a statement detailing the tax charge.
If a scheme sanction charge had been passed on, this would be detailed separately in the statement.
The records of Cambridgeshire Constabulary and its pension providers indicate the scheme sanction charge for Cambridgeshire retirements was correctly paid by the Force and not passed on to members.
However, retired members should check their statements and email CambsSSC@cambs.police.uk if they believe the scheme sanction charge was incorrectly applied.