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Module 5: Research and analysis

Catching a confident wrong figure

25 minutes. Last checked 9 November 2026.

Lesson 2 of 4 in this module

Everything in this lesson is fictional: the firm (Ashdown Wealth Planning), its clients (Mrs Fairley, and Mr Kendrick in the Try it) and the AI answers, written to be wrong for this course. The passages are copied from gov.uk pages, read on Monday 9 November 2026. Do not paste real client data to follow along.

What you will do

Write a prompt that checks every figure, date and rule in an AI tool's answer to a pension question against passages you copied yourself, so a confident wrong allowance is caught before it reaches the client.

When to use it

You asked an AI tool a pension question and got a clear, certain answer: "The money purchase annual allowance is £4,000 a year." It names the allowance, gives an exact figure, and draws a conclusion from it. Nothing in the wording tells you the figure is wrong. A wrong allowance can be a real figure that was right for an earlier tax year, which is why it looks familiar, and why an answer that gives no tax year deserves the closest look.

This replaces reading the answer, recognising the figure and moving on. In lesson 5.1 the tool gave you a list of rules to check. Here the tool has given its answer, and you check it: every figure, date and rule, one row each, against text you copied from the source yourself, not against the tool's memory or your own.

The next time an AI answer, a colleague's research note or a client's forwarded answer gives a figure you would act on:

  1. Keep the answer exactly as you received it. A second answer from the same tool, asked to correct itself, is no more checked than the first.
  2. Find each figure, date and rule on gov.uk or in HMRC's manuals, and copy the passage that states it, with the address and the date you read it. Copy whole sentences, and every item of a list.
  3. Leave out what the task does not need, and check whether the AI tool's terms make its provider your processor. Lesson 0.2 shows how.
  4. Paste the prompt below with the client facts, the answer and your numbered passages under it.
  5. Read every row against its passage yourself, then correct the answer from the passages. The advice that follows is yours.

The prompt

Prompt parts:

  • Role
  • Context
  • Task
  • Inputs
  • Constraints
  • Format
  • Questions first

  1. Part 1. Role: You are helping a UK financial adviser at a small firm check the figures, dates and rules in an answer about pensions or tax before anyone relies on it.

  2. Part 2. Context: The answer below came from an AI chat tool I asked about one client's question. It reads as certain, but such tools sometimes give an allowance or date from an earlier tax year, or a rule that does not apply to the facts. Under it are the client's facts from our file and passages I copied myself from gov.uk and HMRC's manuals, each with its address and the date I read it.

  3. Part 3. Task: Check every figure, date and rule the answer states against the passages and the client facts I pasted.

  4. Part 4. Inputs: The client facts, the answer, then the numbered passages, pasted below.

  5. Part 5. Constraints: Work only from what I pasted, not from your own knowledge of these rules. One row for each figure, date or rule the answer states. Quote the passage word for word, and give the tax year the passage names, or "Not given". A figure matches only if a passage gives the same figure for the same tax year as the answer's claim. Where nothing I pasted covers a claim, mark it No passage. Do not rewrite the answer, do not say what the client should do, and do not work out any amount.

  6. Part 6. Format: A table with the columns #, Claim in the answer, Checked against, What it says, Tax year and Result, where Checked against is a passage number or "Client facts" and Result is Matches, Different or No passage. Then a list headed "Sentences that rest on a row marked Different or No passage", quoting each sentence of the answer in full.

  7. Part 7. Questions first: If two passages give different figures for the same tax year, or a passage looks cut off, ask me before you start.

[paste the client facts, the answer, then the numbered passages here]

Why this prompt works

The Constraints carry the catch: a figure matches only when a passage gives it for the same tax year, and the £4,000 below is a figure HMRC's manual does hold, for earlier years, so a looser test would have passed it.

Sample input

Mrs Fairley asked whether she can keep paying into her workplace pension once she starts taking drawdown income. Her adviser asked an AI chat tool and got the answer below, which was written wrong for this lesson. The passages the adviser copied follow it. Paste the whole block under the prompt, in place of the paste line.

Sample input

FICTIONAL SAMPLE FOR COURSE PRACTICE. Not a real client.
Ashdown Wealth Planning, client details replaced with placeholders, details the check does not need left out

CLIENT FACTS (from our file)
[CLIENT], aged 60, employed. She pays £900 a month into her workplace pension and her employer pays £600 a month. That is £18,000 a year in total. Her workplace pension is a defined contribution scheme.
Personal pension with Northgate Life: she took her tax-free lump sum on Friday 12 June 2026 and the rest was moved into flexi-access drawdown. No income taken from it yet.
Her email, Wednesday 4 November 2026: "If I start taking £500 a month from my drawdown next spring, can I keep paying into my work pension as now?"

THE ANSWER (from an AI chat tool, written wrong for this lesson. Check it; do not use it.)
Because you took your tax-free lump sum in June, you have already triggered the money purchase annual allowance (MPAA). The MPAA is £4,000 a year. Your workplace pension contributions are £18,000 a year, so you are already well over the limit for this tax year and will face an annual allowance charge. Taking income from drawdown also triggers the MPAA, so starting your £500 a month next spring changes nothing. You should cut your contributions to £4,000 a year now.

PASSAGES (copied by me, read Monday 9 November 2026)
G1. https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-your-private-pension/annual-allowance
Your annual allowance might be lower if you flexibly access your pension. For example, this could include taking:
- cash or a short-term annuity from a flexi-access drawdown fund
- cash from a pension pot (‘uncrystallised funds pension lump sums’)
The lower allowance is called the ‘money purchase annual allowance’.

G2. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/pensions-tax-manual/ptm056510, section on the money purchase annual allowance test from tax year 2016-17
For tax year 2017-18 to 2022-23, the money purchase annual allowance is £4,000.

G3. Same page, same section
For tax year 2023-24 onwards, the money purchase annual allowance is £10,000.

G4. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/pensions-tax-manual/ptm056520, section on payments from newly designated member flexi-access drawdown funds
If an individual has a member’s flexi-access drawdown fund that came into effect as a result of:
- funds being designated on or after 6 April 2015 as available to provide drawdown pension, or
- funds in a pre-6 April 2015 member drawdown pension fund being transferred to another pension scheme and, as part of the transfer, being re-designated as a member flexi-access drawdown fund in the receiving scheme

a trigger event occurs immediately before the first payment is made from that member flexi-access drawdown fund.

For this purpose, the first payment means:
- payment of income withdrawal from the member’s flexi-access drawdown fund, or
- payment of a short-term annuity purchased with funds from the member’s flexi-access drawdown fund.

G5. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/pensions-tax-manual/ptm056530
The money purchase annual allowance will not apply if one of the following events occur:
- payment of a pension commencement lump sum (see PTM063200)
- payment of a trivial commutation lump sum (see PTM063500)
- payment of funds from a money purchase arrangement as a ‘small lump sum’ (see PTM063700)
- entitlement to a scheme pension under a money purchase arrangement where at least 11 other individuals are receiving a scheme pension or dependants’ scheme pension
- entitlement to a lifetime annuity that cannot decrease in amount except in prescribed circumstances (see PTM062400)
- from 6 April 2015, no more than the permitted maximum for capped drawdown continues to be paid from a pre-6 April 2015 drawdown pension fund (see PTM062700)
- payments from a beneficiary’s flexi-access drawdown fund (see PTM072430).

G6. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/pensions-tax-manual/ptm063210
When a member has become, or is to become entitled, to certain pension benefits under a registered pension scheme the scheme may also pay that member a tax-free lump sum. The legislation calls this type of payment a pension commencement lump sum.

Example output

Example output. Yours will differ in wording.

(Fictional, written for this course.)

#Claim in the answerChecked againstWhat it saysTax yearResult
1Taking the tax-free lump sum triggered the money purchase annual allowanceG5, G6G5: "The money purchase annual allowance will not apply if one of the following events occur:" with "payment of a pension commencement lump sum (see PTM063200)" listed. G6: "The legislation calls this type of payment a pension commencement lump sum."Not givenDifferent
2The money purchase annual allowance is £4,000 a yearG2, G3G2: "For tax year 2017-18 to 2022-23, the money purchase annual allowance is £4,000." G3: "For tax year 2023-24 onwards, the money purchase annual allowance is £10,000."G2: 2017-18 to 2022-23. G3: 2023-24 onwardsDifferent
3Her workplace pension contributions are £18,000 a yearClient facts"That is £18,000 a year in total."Not givenMatches
4Taking income from drawdown triggers the money purchase annual allowanceG1, G4G1: "cash or a short-term annuity from a flexi-access drawdown fund". G4: "a trigger event occurs immediately before the first payment is made from that member flexi-access drawdown fund."Not givenMatches

Sentences that rest on a row marked Different or No passage

  • "Because you took your tax-free lump sum in June, you have already triggered the money purchase annual allowance (MPAA)." (row 1)
  • "The MPAA is £4,000 a year." (row 2)
  • "Your workplace pension contributions are £18,000 a year, so you are already well over the limit for this tax year and will face an annual allowance charge." (rows 1 and 2)
  • "Taking income from drawdown also triggers the MPAA, so starting your £500 a month next spring changes nothing." (row 1)
  • "You should cut your contributions to £4,000 a year now." (rows 1 and 2)

Which figure is wrong, and why. The answer said £4,000. HMRC's manual gives £4,000 only for "tax year 2017-18 to 2022-23", and gives £10,000 for "tax year 2023-24 onwards". The answer named no tax year, so it read as this year's figure when it was an old one. The £4,000 is the confident wrong figure: real, precise, and out of date.

Which rule is wrong, and why. The answer said taking the tax-free lump sum set off the lower allowance. The manual lists "payment of a pension commencement lump sum" among the events where the money purchase annual allowance "will not apply", and the legislation's name for a tax-free lump sum is "pension commencement lump sum". On the passages, the trigger is the first payment from the drawdown fund, such as income, and she has taken none yet.

What is left of the answer. Only rows 3 and 4. Every sentence of the answer rests on row 1 or row 2, so none of it goes to her as written. The real question is what happens once she starts taking income next spring, against her £18,000 a year and the £10,000 the manual gives for tax year 2023-24 onwards. That is your advice to give, from the passages, after checking every pension she holds for any earlier payment that could count.

What to check

  • Each Matches row against its quote. Row 4 matches the passages, but only for payments from the drawdown fund. Make sure no match is stretched to cover more than the passage says.
  • The tax year on every figure. A Matches row with "Not given" in the Tax year column is fine for a rule with no figure. For an allowance or rate, find the passage that names the year, as G2 and G3 do here.
  • The answer's conclusion, not just its rows. "Changes nothing" and "cut your contributions to £4,000 a year now" were never figures, so they have no row of their own. They appear in the sentences list because they rest on rows 1 and 2. Rewrite nothing from them.
  • The client facts you did not paste. The facts cover her Northgate Life pension and her workplace pension. Before you advise, check her file for any other pension she has taken money from, because a passage only covers the facts you gave it.
  • A list you copied whole. G5 has seven items. A passage with items dropped can make a rule look wider than it is, so compare it with the page before you paste.

Variations

  1. The figures box in your own letters. Paste your standard "Allowances this tax year" paragraph as the answer, and the HMRC rates page as passages, each spring. Any figure the passages give for another year shows up as Different.
  2. A start date instead of a figure. For an answer that says when a change begins, paste the page that gives the start date. A date after the day you read it means the change has not started, and the answer cannot describe it as the rule now.
  3. Ask for the tax year up front. In your research prompts, have the tool give the tax year beside every figure, as the 5.1 prompt does. A figure that arrives with "year not known" is the one to check first.

Try it

About 10 minutes. A paraplanner at the firm used an AI chat tool to draft a research note on how Mr Kendrick's dividends are taxed this tax year, and you check it before it goes on his file. Write the Context part. It needs to say what the answer is (a research note a colleague drafted with an AI tool for one client's question), that it reads as certain but may give an allowance or rate from an earlier tax year, and what is pasted under it. The rest of the prompt stays as it is.

Fictional note and passages to use:

Sample input

FICTIONAL SAMPLE FOR COURSE PRACTICE. Not a real client.
Ashdown Wealth Planning, client details replaced with placeholders, details the check does not need left out

CLIENT FACTS (from our file)
[CLIENT], aged 66, retired. General investment account on the Westmoor platform, dividends expected of about £2,400 in this tax year. Stocks and shares ISA on the Westmoor platform.
His question, at his review on Thursday 5 November 2026: "Do I pay tax on my dividends this year?"

THE ANSWER (research note drafted by [COLLEAGUE] with an AI chat tool, written wrong for this lesson. Check it; do not use it.)
For the current tax year, the dividend allowance is £1,000. Dividends above the allowance are taxed at 8.75% for a basic rate taxpayer. Dividends from shares held in an ISA are not taxed. So the client pays tax on his dividends above £1,000.

PASSAGES (copied by me, read Monday 9 November 2026)
D1. https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-dividends
You do not pay tax on any dividend income that falls within your Personal Allowance (the amount of income you can earn each year without paying tax).
You also get a dividend allowance of £500 each year. You only pay tax on any dividend income above the dividend allowance.
You do not pay tax on dividends from shares in an ISA.

D2. Same page
This table shows the rates from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. You can also see rates and allowances for past tax years.
Tax band: Basic rate. Tax rate on dividends over the allowance: 10.75%
Tax band: Higher rate. Tax rate on dividends over the allowance: 35.75%
Tax band: Additional rate. Tax rate on dividends over the allowance: 39.35%

Prompt parts:

  • Role
  • Context
  • Task
  • Inputs
  • Constraints
  • Format
  • Questions first

  1. Part 1. Role: You are helping a UK financial adviser at a small firm check the figures, dates and rules in an answer about pensions or tax before anyone relies on it.

  2. Part 2. Context: [write the Context part]

  3. Part 3. Task: Check every figure, date and rule the answer states against the passages and the client facts I pasted.

  4. Part 4. Inputs: The client facts, the answer, then the numbered passages, pasted below.

  5. Part 5. Constraints: Work only from what I pasted, not from your own knowledge of these rules. One row for each figure, date or rule the answer states. Quote the passage word for word, and give the tax year the passage names, or "Not given". A figure matches only if a passage gives the same figure for the same tax year as the answer's claim. Where nothing I pasted covers a claim, mark it No passage. Do not rewrite the answer, do not say what the client should do, and do not work out any amount.

  6. Part 6. Format: A table with the columns #, Claim in the answer, Checked against, What it says, Tax year and Result, where Checked against is a passage number or "Client facts" and Result is Matches, Different or No passage. Then a list headed "Sentences that rest on a row marked Different or No passage", quoting each sentence of the answer in full.

  7. Part 7. Questions first: If two passages give different figures for the same tax year, or a passage looks cut off, ask me before you start.

[paste the client facts, the answer, then the numbered passages here]

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