Plan your pension for later life

A pension is a way of saving for your retirement. You don't have to pay tax on pension contributions, which means it could be more effective than saving for your retirement in other ways.

Below is information from the gov.uk website including a link to the Pension Tracing Service:

The three types of pension are state pension, workplace pensions and personal pensions. (1)

State Pension

The State Pension is a regular payment from the government when you reach State Pension age. The full rate of the new State Pension is £179.60 per week, which is over £9,300 per year. However, the amount you receive is based on your National Insurance record over your working life, so the amount you get could be different from this.

Visit Check Your State Pension forecast to find out how much State Pension you could get and when you can get it.

Personal Pensions

Personal pensions are pensions that you arrange yourself. Personal pensions are particularly suitable if you're self-employed or not in work, and so don't have access to a workplace pension. But anyone can save into a personal pension. Find out more about personal pensions.

Workplace pensions

A workplace pension is a way for both you and your employer to make contributions to your retirement savings. As you pay into your pension, so does your employer.

Workplace pensions are arranged by your employer, and if you're eligible, you will be automatically enrolled, meaning a percentage of your pay is put into the pension scheme every payday. You may also be able to top up your pension contributions each time you get paid. Talk to your employer to see if this is available for you.

Some workplace pensions are defined contribution pension schemes. If you are in a defined contribution pension scheme, you will get a statement each year from the pension provider telling you how much you have saved into it, and what you might receive if you carry on saving into it. Find out more about workplace pensions. 

Find lost workplace pension pots

Through changing jobs, it can be easy to lose track of your workplace pension pots, and even underestimate, or overestimate, how much is in them. One of the simple steps of retirement planning is understanding what you already have, and some pension schemes allow you to combine past workplace pensions into a single pension pot.

If you have several pension pots, consider whether it makes sense to bring them together. Visit MoneyHelper for more information on how to transfer old pension savings into your current scheme.

Use the Pension Tracing Service to start tracking down lost pensions.

References:

(1) gov.uk Retirement planning