Jeff's Pension links page

Jeff's Pension links page


Index page

Pension in UK

UK Gov sites



State Pension forecast
The ammount varies depending on NI contributions / time Contracted Out / SERPS contributions, etc.
Check pension forecast online here:

The general rules for what you will get and what day you will get it are here:


State Pension qualifying years
You'll need 35 qualifying years to get the full new State Pension. You'll get a proportion of the new State Pension if you have between 10 and 35 qualifying years.
State pension calculation (partly) explained here:


State Pension calculation - Age UK have more explanation
If you have already built up NI contributions under the pre-2016 system, you will be given a starting amount. This will be whichever of the following that is higher:
Either the amount you would have received under the pre-2016 system including basic and additional pension
Or
The amount you would get if the new State Pension had been in place at the start of your working life.
You may get more if e.g. you contributed to SERPS State Earnings Related Pension.
State pension calculation also partly explained here:


You will stop paying National Insurance at state pension age even if you keep working
National Insurance and tax after State Pension age


UK Gov provides a free personal pension consultant meeting
Pension Wise is a government service from MoneyHelper that offers free, impartial guidance about your defined contribution pension options.
An appointment with Pension Wise is free and will help you understand what your overall financial situation will be when you retire.
How to prepare and questions to ask.


The future of pensions, Intergenerational fairness, Sustainability and affordability, etc. Government thinking about longer term future of state pension :
State Pension review


Various information at Moneyhelper.org :
State Pension: an overview

(end of Gov sites)



What to do with a Defined Contribution Pension Fund at Retirement:
The options are:

1) Get a Guaranteed Income for Life (or a fixed period) - Annuity. This used to be the only option, but now is not
Annuities: Are They a Good or Bad Idea?

2) Take a flexible retirement Income - Drawdown
Drawdown explained

3) Take a number of Lump Sums - Uncrystallised Funds Pension Lump Sum (UFPLS)
UFPLS explained

4) Take Whole Pot in One Go, sometimes referred to as "Cash In" the pension
Beware of High Tax Bill & Running Out of Money

Compare Drawdown & UFPLS
Drawdown & UFPLS compared

Explanation of how the options work, from Vanguard investment platform

Technical advice on how much to take for best compromise between Risk Of Running Out and Living Unnecessarily Frugally:
Retirement Withdrawal Strategies
There are some online calculators cFIREsim, and FICalc, both web-based portfolio withdrawal analysis tools, that allows you to see how a withdrawl strategy would behave over historical market performance.

PAYE Tax on Pensions
Pension income is taxable at your marginal rate, so 20% tax if above the Tax Allowance threshold. It is not subject to National Insurance.
The State Pension will generally be untaxed. Your Tax Allowance will be assigned to your State Pension first, then to other income.
If your State Pension exceeds the Tax Allowance (e.g. because you paid into SERPS) then it will probably still be received tax free, the missing tax will then be deducted from some other income, e.g. private pension.
Note that often, for pensions other than the state pension, the first pension payment will be untaxed because your pension company will not know your tax code. Subsequent payments will then be taxed correctly.
Detailed information from The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group


In order to budget, you will need to know how long you are likely to live.
There are Life Tables here. They are for USA, but close enough?


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