Editorial & Corrections Policy

How our content is produced

Every rate, allowance, and rule PlainPension publishes comes from an official UK source: the Department for Work & Pensions for State Pension rates and qualifying-year thresholds, HM Revenue & Customs for the Annual Allowance, taper, MPAA and lump-sum rules, MoneyHelper for the government-backed plain-language interpretation, and the FCA register for regulated providers. We load those published figures into a structured database and render every page and every calculator result from it, so the numbers on the page are the official numbers — not hand-typed and not estimated by us.

The calculator is rules-based and runs entirely on your device. It applies the current statutory rules to the inputs you enter and shows the working, so any result can be traced back to the rule behind it. We are transparent that PlainPension is a data-and-tools publisher: the editorial work goes into the pipeline, the methodology, the calculator logic, and the written guides — not into hand-authoring figures that should come straight from the source.

Sourcing standards

• Official sources only. Rates and rules come from the DWP, HMRC, MoneyHelper, or the FCA. Where we cite a figure we name the source and the tax year it applies to.
• Attribution in context. Each data page and calculator result names its source and the 2026/27 tax year near the figures, and links to the methodology that explains how anything derived is calculated.
• Derived values are labelled. Numbers we compute — projections, break-even points, and comparisons — are presented as deterministic illustrations of the official rules under your inputs, clearly distinct from the statutory figures themselves.
• No invented data. Where a rule has not been confirmed for a future year, or an input is unknown, the page says so rather than filling the gap with a guess.

Update cadence

UK pension rates change on a predictable cycle. State Pension and benefit rates are uprated each April under the triple lock; the Annual Allowance, taper and lump-sum allowance are set in the Budget and the Finance Act. We refresh the database when a new tax-year rate is confirmed, preserving prior years so the rate history and research stay comparable. Between confirmed changes the figures are stable because the rules themselves do not change. The tax year each page is based on is shown on the page.

Corrections process

If a figure on PlainPension looks wrong, please tell us. Because our pages are generated from the source rules, a genuine error almost always traces back to either the upstream figure or our processing of it — so this is how we handle a report:

1. Report. Email corrections@plainpension.co.uk or use the contact page with the page URL and the number that looks off.
2. Verify. We compare the figure against the DWP, HMRC, MoneyHelper or FCA published source for that tax year.
3. Fix at the source. If the value is wrong on our side, we correct it in the database and pipeline that generate the page — not just on one page — so every page and calculator result is fixed at once. If the figure faithfully reflects the source, we explain that and add context where useful.
4. Note it. Corrections that change a published figure are reflected the next time the page rebuilds, with the tax year shown so you can see which rules a page is based on.

We aim to acknowledge data-error reports within a few business days.

Editorial independence

PlainPension is an independent information service and is not affiliated with the DWP, HMRC, MoneyHelper, the FCA, or any government body. Our guides and tools are not influenced by advertisers; advertising, where present, is clearly distinguishable from editorial content and never determines what we show or recommend. The calculator's logic is mechanical and identical for everyone — no provider can pay to change a result.

Appropriate use

PlainPension is for information and general guidance only and does not provide regulated financial, tax, or pension advice. Calculator results are deterministic projections based on the inputs and assumptions you enter — not a forecast of any specific outcome, and investment returns are not guaranteed. For a decision about your own pension, consult an FCA-regulated adviser or the free government Pension Wise service. See our disclaimer for details.