Since 6 April 2015, married couples or civil partners can claim to transfer £1,060 of personal allowance from one spouse or partner to the other, provided that the recipient does not pay tax at a rate higher than basic rate.

The main couples to benefit from this are likely to be pensioner couples where one spouse has insufficient income to use all of their personal allowance, or couples where one spouse either does not work or earns an amount below the personal allowance (£10,600 for the current tax year).

Anthony Thomas, Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) chairman, said: ‘This allowance was introduced amid claims it would benefit around four million couples in the UK, but it appears significantly fewer applications have been made. Part of the reason for that is undoubtedly the lack of publicity encouraging such claims.

‘We urge you to make your claim, if you are entitled, and if doing so would save you tax. You will generally save tax by claiming if one of you has spare tax allowances that the other can make use of.’

In order to process the claim, HMRC needs the national insurance numbers for each spouse.

 In addition, if the claim is made online or by phone, HMRC will have to check the identity of the person making the claim and will ask for information from the claimant such as the last four digits from bank accounts that any state benefits (such as pension or child benefit) are paid into or from bank accounts that pay interest.

Alternatively HMRC may ask for information from employment such as information contained on a P60 (the form given to all employees at the end of a tax year).

The claim should not be made if one spouse was born before 6 April 1935. Instead, the couple is entitled to claim married couple’s allowance which is more favourable.

Apply for marriage allowance at gov.uk or by telephone phone on 0300 200 3300. Alternatively a letter template is available on the LITRG website.