AN OAP was left stunned when he received a letter from the tax office telling he was dead.

Ronald Pomeroy, 83, from Southsea, near Portsmouth was furious with HMRC after they assumed he was dead and stopped paying his pension.

Government officials responsible for the blunder were told he passed away and started rubber-stamping the "deceased" forms.

Mr Pomeroy said: "There was a letter addressed to the estate telling us that I had died, and wanting to see if I owed them any more tax.

"It hit me quite hard, knowing that they don't think I exist.

"I know I'm 83 years old but I've not gone yet!

The Southsea man began getting worried and believed somebody could have stolen his identity.

He said: "I think it affected my wife even more than it did me.

"She was stunned that we had been given a letter like this and it has placed an awful lot of stress on us both.

"My pension was stopped the other day and that has had a huge impact.

"I don't know when that will be coming back, so that has been a huge loss to me.

Mr Pomeroy said: "HMRC has told me that they are sending somebody round to see me - presumably to check my pulse."

Ronald was left waiting several days for an official apology, which he didn't receive until earlier this week.

He believes HMRC could have handled it better, and says he would like to see them handle similar scenarios differently in the future.

"All they said was that they would take a look at things.

"I only just received an apology and that's rather sickening, given the circumstances.

"Apparently it was an issue with the registrar's office but I don't quite understand how it happened.

"The situation hasn't exactly been handled delicately.

"If I didn't have my Naval pension there would have been nothing to fall back on.

An HMRC spokesperson said they "cannot comment on individual cases".