THOUSANDS of low-paid workers are being denied tax relief on their pensions because of a loophole in regulations, the TUC Congress will hear this weekend.

Employers are now obliged to auto-enrol their employees in a workplace pension scheme, with their contributions “topped up” by the government, usually through the reimbursement of tax.

But this reimbursement is only made available to workers earning under the income tax threshold if their company operates a “relief at source” pension plan.