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Reviews By Richard Berry - Updated
Quick Answer: Moneyfarm has the best pension performance, Interactive Brokers is the cheapest pension and Hargreaves Lansdown has the best customer service.
Private pensions are a powerful, tax-efficient tool for securing your retirement. With them, you can take charge of your investments, choosing exactly where your money goes—whether it’s in stocks, bonds, ETFs, or funds.
| Name | Logo | GMG Rating | Customer Reviews | Pension Fees | Minimum Deposit | CTA | Feature | Expand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | GMG Rating | Customer Reviews | Pension Fees 0% – 0.25% | Minimum Deposit £500 | See Offer Capital at risk | Features:
| AJ Bell's SIPP & pension is one of the cheapest around for retirement investors Account: AJ Bell SIPP & Pension Description: AJ Bell offers the cheapest SIPP account when you compare them against providers that charge a percentage of your portfolio value. You can invest in a wide range of investments, including stocks in more than 20 markets, over 2,000 funds, ETFs, and bonds. Is AJ Bell's pension any good? AJ Bell won “best SIPP provider” in our 2023 and 2022 awards. They offer a huge range of UK and international markets to invest in (with low FX fees). AJ Bell also scored very well in our survey for customer support and has an easy-to-use and low-cost SIPP account platform. AJ Bell SIPP Special Offers: Up to £500 cashback: Switch your SIPP to AJ Bell and they will pay up to £35 per investment and £100 in exit fees as cash back to cover your costs up to £500. AJ Bell SIPP Fees: Annual account charges are 0.25% for shares (capped at £10/month) and tiered for funds (0.25% up to £250,000, 0.10% up to £500,000, and free beyond), with dealing charges of £5 for shares (£3.50 for frequent traders) and £1.50 for funds. Pros
Cons
Overall5 | |
 | GMG Rating | Customer Reviews | Pension Fees 0.45% | Minimum Deposit £100 | See Offer Capital at risk | Features:
| Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP & Pension Is Great For Those That Want Excellent Service & Research Account: Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP & Pension Description: We do however, consistantly rank Hargreaves Lansdown as one of the best SIPP providers in the UK (HL won best SIPP in our 2022 Awards). The main advantage of Hargreaves Lansdown’s SIPP is that it offers access to a vast range of investments. Investors have access to domestic and international equities, over 3,000 funds, bonds, as well as plenty of research and investment tools. Customer service is also top notch, with really helpful and knowledgable staff that can provide guidence if needed. Is Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP (Pension) Any Good? Yes, Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP costs start at 0.45% of your portfolio value. The account charge for shares is capped at £200 per year. Funds are charged at 0.45% for the first £250,000, then 0.25% between £250k and £1m, then 0.1% between £1-£2m. There is no charge above £2m. There is no charge for buying funds, but shares are charged at £11.95 per deal or £5.95 if you do over 20 deals per month. But, if you open a SIPP with HL before the 30th June with £10k or more you’ll get a discount of 40% on account fees. As HL is generally quite expensive, this is a great deal, and could save you £180 in fees. But keep in mind that when this discount ends in 2026, if you have £100,000 in your SIPP with HL it will cost £450 a year, versus £155.88 with interactive investor. For beginners and smaller accounts Hargreaves Lansdown, is a great choice, as HL offer one of the best apps on the market and provide stock research and analysis on the most heavily traded stocks in the UK and US. Hargreaves Lansdown is also good for beginners because they are quite simple to use and have an excellent reputation for customer support from their Bristol based offices. They may be a little more expensive that some of the other platforms, but you certainly get what you pay for. Some SIPP accounts are better suited to beginners than others. Generally speaking, beginner investors require a SIPP that is easy to use, cost-effective, and offers access to products that are well suited to beginners such as ready-made portfolios. So, if you are a complete beginner to SIPP investing and are not confident enough to choose what individual stocks and shares you want to own in the long term. A private pension may be more appropriate. One private pension account (which is not actually a SIPP because you can’t buy individual shares) that is well suited to beginners is Wealthify. Wealthify is a robo advisor (or digital wealth manager) that offers a managed pension product. With Wealthify, you choose an investment style based on your risk tolerance. One advantage of Wealthify is that the minimum investment is just £50. One downside, however, is that there are only a few investment options to choose from. Pros
Cons
Overall4.8 | |
 | GMG Rating | Customer Reviews | Pension Fees 0.6% – 0.3% | Minimum Deposit £50 | See Offer Capital at risk | Features:
| Wealthify's Pension Won Private Pension Provider 2025 Account: Wealthify Pension Description: Overall we rate Wealthify as a good managed pension, but it is not a SIPP pension as you cannot invest in individual shares, instead you pick one of their portfolios based on how much risk you want to take, so it’s more of a private managed personal pension. Wealthify is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and owned by Aviva. Is Wealthify's pension any good?
Pension Fees: Wealthify has recently cut management fees for SIPP accounts holding more than £100,000 by introducing a tiered charging structure. Any amount above £100,000 in Wealthify Personal Pension accounts will be charged at a lower annual fee of 0.3%, putting the service in a very competitive position against other providers. This represents a reduction on the offering’s standard annual fee of 0.6% on balances up to £100,000. Both fees are charged monthly. In real terms, that means if you have £200,000 in your Welathify pension, your fees will now be £300 a year lower The updated pricing structure is aimed at enhancing the appeal of Wealthify’s SIPP, particularly among more affluent clients. Wealthify chief executive Richard Ambrose said: “Too many people are unaware of what they are paying in fees. It’s our duty as pension providers to make this clear. Fees are charged as a percentage of the pension pot, so the more you put in, the more fees will eat into your retirement savings. “Whatever stage people are at with their pensions, I hope Wealthify’s new tiering inspires them to review their fees and vote with their feet so that they aren’t paying more than they need to.” By introducing tiered fees, Aviva-owned Wealthify’s SIPP offering comes in line with its direct digital wealth manager competitors Nutmeg and Moneyfarm, as well as other personal pension providers. Nutmeg and Moneyfarm have slightly higher tiered management fees depending on the amount of assets held in their SIPPs. Wealthify’s decision to cut its pension management fees on sums above £100,000 to 0.3% puts it in a more competitive position. Nutmeg charges an annual fee of 0.75% for assets up to £100,000 and then 0.35% on money above this amount for three of its four personal pension services. Its “Fixed Allocation” service carries a fee of 0.45% up to £100,000 and then 0.25% on further investments. By contrast, Moneyfarm has multiple fee tiers, starting at 0.75% from £500 before falling to 0.7% on investments above £10,000, 0.65% above £20,000 and 0.6% above £50,000. Moneyfarm’s SIPP management fees then fall to 0.45% above £100,000, 0.4% above £250,000 and 0.35% above £500,000. It is important to note these charges concern only the management of the SIPP and do not account for other costs such as the fees of funds in which portfolios are invested or transaction fees. Also perhaps influencing the new structure of Wealthify Personal Pension, major investment platforms Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell also charged tiered fees with their SIPP offerings. Hargreaves Lansdown charges 0.45% per year for assets up to £250,000, 0.25% on amounts between £250,000–£1,000,000 and 0.1% between £1,000,000–£2,000,000. There is no fee on assets above £2 million. AJ Bell charges 0.25% on SIPP accounts holding up to £250,000 and 0.25% above this amount up to £500,000. There is no charge on assets above this amount. The UK’s second largest retail investment platform interactive Investor (ii) is an outlier here due to its structure of charging flat fees as opposed to percentages. For ii accounts with a minimum value of £10,000, charges start at £5.99 a month up to £50,000. It then charges £12.99 a month for accounts above this amount on its Pension Builder plan. It also offers substantial cash back on deposits and transfers. Performance: Excluding fees, Wealthify plans have returned just over 24% since 2019, with an average return of just over 4% per year. Which, if we’re honest, is not great seeing as the S&P, the major US stock market that contains 500 of the biggest US public companies, has returned around 85%. It’s not exactly a fair comparison because Wealthify plans are diversified (as portfolios are supposed to be) across bonds and different countries. It will certainly be interesting to see the 2026 performance update after the most recent stock market crash, where you’d expect a diversified portfolio to be more resilient than an index tracker. Remember that past performance is not an indication of future results. Capital at risk. Your tax treatment will depend on your individual circumstances and it may be subject to change in the future. Pros
Cons
Overall4.8 | |
 | GMG Rating | Customer Reviews | Pension Fees 0.75% | Minimum Deposit £1 | See Offer Capital at risk | Features:
| Moneyfarm: Best Private Pension Overall Account: Moneyfarm Pension Description: Moneyfarm lets you invest your pension in one of seven ready-made simple and diverse portfolios with different degrees of risk and reward. Users can transfer a pension or setup a new one and Moneyfarm will manage your portfolio based on your retirement target date by reducing the risk as the time approaches. Is Moneyfarm's pension any good? Yes, Moneyfarm’s pension account fees are scaled between 0.75% for accounts between £500 and £50,000, then above £100k are 0.45% to 0.35%. Average investment fund fees are 0.2% and the average market spread when buying and selling is 0.10% Fees: Moneyfarm’s pension account fees are scaled between 0.75% for accounts between £500 and £50,000, then above £100k are 0.45% to 0.35%. Average investment fund fees are 0.2% and the average market spread when buying and selling is 0.10% Pros
Cons
Overall4.8 | |
 | GMG Rating | Customer Reviews | Pension Fees £155.88 | Minimum Deposit £1 | See Offer Capital at risk | Features:
| Interactive Investor SIPP won best self-invested personal pension 2025 Account: Interactive Investor SIPP Description: Interactive Investor offers the most investment options in the UK SIPP markets. With II you can invest more than 40,000 domestic and international shares, ETFs, bonds and over 3,000 funds (AJ Bell has 2,000 and HL offers 2,500 funds). Is Interactive Investors' SIPP (pension) any good?
The key advantage of interactive investor’s SIPP is that it has a flat-fee structure. This means that annual account charges do not increase as your pension pot grows in size. This structure can help those with larger SIPP portfolios save on fees, however it can be a little expensive for small pensions if you are just starting to invest for your retirement. For smaller pension pots, those that just want to invest in ETFs, InvestEngine offer a free SIPP, but it is limited to just UK-listed ETFs, so you can’t buy individual shares. One of the good things about ii’s SIPP is that you can buy bonds, gilts, and shares in small and large UK and international companies. Even though ii charges £3.99 for buying funds. If you compare this to Hargreaves Lansdown, which does not charge for buying and selling funds, but HL SIPP fees are higher. If you have £100,000 in your SIPP with ii you’d pay £71.88 a year, versus HL where your fees would be £450. So, if you have a big pension, is it worth moving it to ii? Well, yes at the moment, as interactive investor claim their SIPP pricing can give you an additional £68,467 towards your pension after 30 years compared to HL. Plus, if you transfer your SIPP to ii before 30th June, you can claim up to £2,000 in cash back.
Of course, you’ll need to add cash or start a transfer of a minimum value of £10,000 to qualify for your cashback reward. Terms apply. Pros
Cons
Overall5 |
Yes, 
Methodology: How Good Money Guide ratings work. Good Money Guide shortlisted the UK’s best private pension accounts based on:
- More than 30,000 customer votes and reviews in the Good Money Guide Awards
- Extensive testing of private pension accounts with real money
- Insightful interviews with the pension provider’s senior management and CEO
- A deep-dive into comparison of the features each provider offers
- Find out more about our review process in our How We Rate page.
What Is A Personal Pension?
A private pension is a type of investment that’s a tax-efficient way of building funds for your retirement.
For most people, relying solely on the basic State pension will not provide a suitable standard of living in retirement. Supplementing your retirement income with a private personal pension can mean the difference between just surviving and really living.
Typically, private personal pensions are defined contribution arrangements (sometimes called money purchase), which means the account holder bears all the investment risk.
The size of the final pot depends on what you paid in and how well the investments performed.
Private personal pensions differ from workplace pensions set up by an employer into which they will also contribute.
Pros & Cons Of Personal Pensions
Pros
- Tax relief – Private pensions are the most tax-efficient way to save for your retirement
- Compound interest – The earlier you invest the greater your potential returns can be
- Employer contributions – Your employer will top up your pension contributions
- Guaranteed retirement income – If you buy an annuity to provide you with regular income
Cons
- No access until age 55 – When you invest in a private pension you cannot access your money until you are 55
- Underperformance – If you choose your own investments you run the risk of picking investments that do not perform as well as those chosen by a professional investment manager
- Complex – Private pensions are not for everyone. If you don’t understand pricing structures or suitable long-term investment products that can be hard to understand
Personal Pension Calculator
Find out quickly and easily how much your pension contributions will be worth with our free online pension calculator.
It’s important to note that you only get tax relief on contributions up to £60,000 per year.
How To Choose A Pension Provider
The main things to look for when deciding what private pension provider to use are:
- FCA regulation: Always look for regulated providers that are part of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which offers 100% protection should the pension company fail. In addition, if you’ve received bad advice in relation to your pension, you could be eligible to claim up to £85,000
- Cold calls: Watch out for providers – or advisers – that contact via cold calls (which are now illegal) or unsolicited marketing material. Always take the advice of a fully regulated independent financial adviser. Always check the list of regulated and approved list of providers on the Financial Conduct Authority’s website
- Investment options: The amount of fund options available are important; look for providers offering options that meet your risk appetite. If you are interested in a self-invested personal pension, which allows more freedom to invest in individual stocks, make sure the provider has the appropriate expertise and range suited to your preferred portfolio
- Contribution levels: Make sure you ask about minimum contribution levels and that you understand fees and charges
- Exit fees: Many firms will charge exit fees if you want to transfer to a new provider, which can often be expensive.
How To Start A Private Pension
Follow these five steps if you want to start a private pension:
- Decide if you want to manage your pension yourself (SIPP) or have a professional do it
- If you want to manage it yourself and choose what you invest in through a self-invested personal pension) open a SIPP account with a broker like Hargreaves Lansdown, Interactive Investor or AJ Bell
- If you want a professional to manage your investments, choose a digital wealth manager like Wealthify, Moneyfarm or Nutmeg, or if you have over £250,000 to initially invest, a traditional wealth manager would be more appropriate
- Once your pension or SIPP account is open, deposit your initial funds (some providers let you start from as little as £1)
- Set up your regular contributions – this is usually a monthly amount just after you are paid your salary.
Starting A Private Pension If You Are Self-Employed
While employers are obliged to offer all employees a workplace pension, the self-employed need to set a private pension up themselves. There are a growing number of providers offering products aimed at the self-employed market, which offer the flexibility individuals need when they work for themselves.
The rules allow you to contribute your entire annual income up to £40,000 per year, and this will be matched by tax relief of 25%.
Basic private pensions offer limited investment choice, so it may be worth considering a SIPP, which offer far more options if you are self-employed. However, SIPPs require a level of commitment and expertise, and this must be considered before taking out a plan.
Setting Up A Private Pension For Your Children
To start a private pension for your children, you can open a Junior SIPP if you want to choose exactly what you invest in or a managed junior pension if you are happy for an investment manager to do it. You can open a pension for your children if they are under 18, and you can invest a maximum of £2,880 per year (£3,600 after tax-relief). When they turn 18 it turns into a normal SIPP or pension.
How Much To Invest In A Private Pension
Advisers usually suggest that you need 20 – 25 times your retirement expenses. So, if you spend £30,000 per year, you’ll need £600,000 – £750,000 in pensions, investments and savings.
It is worth deciding how your lifestyle will likely change when you retire and the expectations you have from life after work. For example, will you spend more on travel and holidays but less on commuting? Will you stay in your current house or downsize? What about the cost of healthcare as you age?
A financial adviser should help you devise a timeline that can help manage your expenses, which in turn helps you to decide when to take lump sums, how much to drawdown, and when or if you want to buy an annuity.
- Related guide: How to invest for a monthly income
What Is The Best Performing Private Pension Fund?
Moneyfarm has the best pension fund performance over the last five years with an overall return of 72%, however, this is still not as good as investing through a DIY platform like InvestEngine and buying a Vanguard S&P tracker, which has returned over 110%.
It is worth pointing out, though, that all these pension portfolios include bonds to generate income and are designed to be more diverse than a stock market tracker fund. Plus, S&P 500 tracker funds will also fall further during stock market crashes. For instance, in 2022 the Vanguard S&P Tracker returned -18.72% which is a bigger loss than IG, which returned -12.2%. So if you want to get better pension returns you have to be prepared to take on more risk.
⚠️ FCA Regulation & Pension Providers
In the UK, all pension providers are required to be regulated by the FCA—the Financial Conduct Authority—which ensures they meet high standards of financial security, fairness, and compliance.
Good Money Guide exclusively features FCA-regulated pension accounts, so your investments are protected by the FSCS, offering you reliable security as you build your retirement savings.
Pensions & Taxes – What You Need To Know
The key benefit of saving into a private pension is tax relief:
- Contributions receive 25% tax relief for those on the basic rate
- They are free from inheritance tax if you start accessing your pot before you reach age 75.
- You can also take 35% of your pension tax-free once you reach age 55, but you cannot draw before this point, or you’ll pay hefty penalties.
Private pensions are arguably the most tax-efficient way to save and invest for retirement in the UK.
- Government top-up: When you pay into a personal pension from your net pay, the Government automatically adds 25% as a top-up for basic rate tax relief. If you’re a higher or additional rate taxpayer, you may benefit from even more tax relief.
- No capital gains tax: In addition, any returns made on the investments in your pension are free from capital gains tax.
Private Pensions & Fees
Fees and charges vary considerably between providers. Moneyfarm charges 0.35% while Nutmeg’s fee is 0.75%, but the services and fund choices will also vary between providers.
It is important to remember that low fees do not necessarily mean the best value. Paying lower fees for poor performance may prove a false economy, but excessive fees can decimate a pension fund.
For example, assuming a pension pot value of £50,000 growing at 5% a year, reducing your charges from a high level of 1.2% to a very reasonable 0.4% could save you £23,000 over 20 years. Make sure you explore precisely what is included in the costs and what impact these have on the likely final pension pot.
Some providers charge for setting your pension up, but this is not a universal charge, so it makes sense to shop around.
Other charges include platform fees, which cover the administration of your pension. They’re usually charged as a percentage of the money you’ve saved.
- Annual Management Charge: The annual management charge (AMC) pays for running and administering your plan, and for investing contributions. The AMC is charged as a set amount or as a percentage of the value of your pension investments.
Each investment tends to have a different annual management charge to reflect the type of investment fund. Some are more specialist or are more actively managed, and they often have higher charges. An annual charge above 1% is generally considered expensive for a basic personal pension.
For fully managed SIPPs with significant fund charges and financial advice included, fees can often exceed 1%. - Exit Penalties & Fees: It is likely that you will pay an exit fee if you want to transfer your pension to a new provider. These vary from company to company – and even between products within the same provider – and can be as much as 10%, which might negate any benefit of leaving.
You may also incur an early exit fee to cover the long-term management and handling charges over the life of the pension. Exit fees and penalties are not always clear, so it is important that you read the small print before making any decisions. - Ongoing Fund Management Charges: There is also an ongoing charges figure (OCF), which covers the day-to-day costs of running an investment fund that is included in your pensions. It’s usually charged as a percentage of the value of your investments.
UK Private Pension Statistics
This graph using data from the ONS shows the ages of people making contributions to personal pension providers:
Private Pension FAQs:
When you invest in a private pension, an administrator is responsible for any payments into your pension. They will also reclaim basic rate tax relief and process any income withdrawals that you make.
SIPP providers such as Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell and PensionBee administer pensions as part of the service. Other providers use third party administrators to manage this function on their behalf, for example Barclays SIPP uses AJ Bell.
Third-party administrators also usually take care of workplace pensions on behalf of employers.
All third-party administrators (and the administration of SIPP providers if done in-house) are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority which expects firms to clearly establish roles and responsibilities and have procedures to ensure all employees are properly trained and competent.
If you have concerns or complaints about the way your pension is administered, you need to contact the Pensions Ombudsman.
Should the administrator fail completely your pension will be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Further reading: Can I change SIPP administrators?
Yes. If you feel that you are paying too much in fees to your current private pension provider, or they do not offer the flexibility and fund choices you need, it might be worth transferring. However, not all schemes accept transfers.
You can usually transfer a defined benefit pension to a new pension scheme at any time up to one year before the date of when you’re expected to start taking your pension. Some schemes will let you transfer only a part of your benefits. You’ll need to check with your provider to see if they offer this option.
If you are considering leaving your DB scheme, before you can start the advice process, you need to get a transfer value from your scheme. The transfer value is set for three months, so line up an adviser ahead of time to avoid having to make rushed decisions. If you don’t complete the transfer process within the three-month period for which the transfer value is guaranteed, you might have to apply for another value, which will likely incur a cost.
When you’ve transferred to a new scheme, you’ll usually have given up all benefits under the old scheme, and when you start taking your pension, you can’t usually move your pension elsewhere.
If you take regulated financial advice, the IFA bears the risk of any poor decisions rather than you.
Defined benefit scheme members must seek regulated independent financial advice before taking a transfer out if their pot is worth more than £30,000. Thousands of DB members have received bad advice, resulting in them losing their valuable DB pensions. The FCA says good advisers will ask you about current financial circumstances and aims; priorities and spending plans in retirement; other pensions, assets and debts; and your health and your family’s health.
As with DB members, if your DC scheme has ‘safeguarded benefits’ such as a guaranteed annuity rate, and the value of these benefits is more than £30,000, you’ll have to get regulated financial advice before you can transfer.
If you have small pension pots worth less than £10,000, consider keeping them where they are. This is because if you’re considering taking a small pot lump sum at some point before you retire, by withdrawing the whole amount, this will not affect any future pension contributions.
It is almost always better to remain in your occupational or workplace pension because you enjoy contributions from your employer. However, if you are in a defined benefit pension and approaching retirement, you will not be able to take the same flexibilities as those offered to DC members. You must seek financial advice before switching out of DB, and remember that you will be giving up protection of an income for life. Even if your employer is vulnerable to insolvency, your DB pension is protected by the Pension Protection Fund; something not extended to DC funds.
If you are a member of several workplace DC pensions, it might make sense to consolidate these in one place, since your scheme is not transferred automatically when you change jobs.
It may also make sense to transfer your pension to a specialist provider if you are moving overseas. Not all schemes can take contributions from abroad, so you need to fund a qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme.
Private pensions are flexible on death, which means you can nominate a recipient to receive your retirement income.
If you die before your 75th birthday and haven’t started drawing your pension, it can be passed to your beneficiaries tax-free. The beneficiaries will be able to choose how they draw the income (lump sum, drawdown or annuity).
If you die before your 75th birthday, and are already receiving your pension, it will impact how beneficiaries can access the pot. If you took a lump sum and you have remaining cash in your bank account outside of your pension, this will be counted as part of your estate. If you are using drawdown, your beneficiaries can access whatever’s left in your pension entirely tax-free.
If you die after your 75th birthday, your beneficiaries will pay income tax on any pensions you leave behind, at their marginal rate.
If you are not confinement that you fully understand private pensions then yes, you should talk to an independent financial advisor. The market for private pensions is huge, and with so much choice, finding the right plan can be confusing. It is worth considering taking independent advice to find the most appropriate pension for you.
However, there are plenty of well-known companies offering good value private pensions . These include Nutmeg, Wealthify and moneyfarm. Some will offer access to a wide range of ways to invest, while others will keep it more basic. Typically, these firms charge around 0.5% of your pot to run the plan. They offer access to tracker funds which deliver returns in line with how the main indexes are performing your contributions are spread across bonds, stocks, commodities and property. They will also diversify across geographies providing access to global markets.
You can also invest into a self-invested personal pension (SIPP), which allows you to choose exactly how your money is invested.
Yes, you can invest in a private pension and a Lifetime ISA (LISA) simultaneously.
Individuals aged over 18 and under 40 can consider opening a LISA, which is a savings account designed solely to buy a first home or to provide a retirement income.
LISAs are tax-advantaged, so you won’t pay tax, capital gains, or dividend tax on money you take out, but contributions are made after income tax, and they are subject to inheritance tax.
LISAs are also restricted to a maximum £4,000 a year contribution limit, which goes towards the £20,000 ISA contribution cap. You can only withdraw once you reach 60 or if the money is to purchase a first property. Unauthorised withdrawals are subject to a 20% charge.
Further reading: Compare the best lifetime ISAs here
The State pension is paid by the Government to all those with at least 10 years of National Insurance Contributions. A private pension is entirely separate from the State pension and consists of contributions you have made.
To receive the maximum State pension amount – currently £179.60 per week (2021/22) or £9,339.20 per year, you need to have 35 ‘qualifying’ years.
Couples entitled to the full state pension receive a maximum of £359.20 per week or £18,678.40 per year as of 2021/22.
Given the relatively low level of income from the State pension, those who also save into a private pension will most likely be far better off. In addition, you can draw from your private pension from age 55, but the State pension is only available from age 66 (rising to 67 from 2028). There is also a lot of flexibility available with private pensions, giving you the chance to grow your money (however, investments can fall as well as rise).
If you want to combine all your old workplace pensions into your private pension you can do so using the Government has a pension tracing service, which can help you track down any lost pensions by post and online https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details
You can also use the Government’s Unclaimed Assets register, which can also locate misplaced savings and investments. It costs £25, and more information can be found here: https://www.uar.co.uk/
Before you do transfer an old pension, you should always check with a qualified financial advisor as there may be significant benefits that you are unaware of and may lose when you move providers.
Richard Berry
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