Frequently Asked Questions

From 6 April 2026, the full New State Pension is £240.30 per week, which works out to £12,495.60 per year. This is the rate set by the DWP rate-uprating order applying the triple-lock formula (the higher of CPI, earnings growth, or 2.5%) to the 2025/26 rate of £230.25 per week. You need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions or credits to receive the full amount, and a minimum of 10 years to receive any State Pension at all.

State Pension Age is currently 66 for both men and women. It is legislated to rise to 67 between April 2026 and March 2028, and to 68 between 2044 and 2046 (the latter date may be brought forward, depending on the outcome of the next State Pension Age review). You cannot claim the State Pension until you reach State Pension Age — there is no early-access option.

The standard pension Annual Allowance is £60,000 for 2026/27. This is the maximum you and your employer can contribute to all your pensions in one tax year while still receiving tax relief at your marginal rate. The allowance tapers down by £1 for every £2 of 'adjusted income' above £260,000, down to a floor of £10,000 for the highest earners. If you have already flexibly accessed a Defined Contribution pension, the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA) of £10,000 replaces the standard allowance for further DC contributions.

You can take 25% of each pension pot tax-free, subject to a lifetime cap of £268,275 across all pots combined. Anything above the cap is taxed at your marginal income-tax rate. The 25% tax-free element can be taken as a single lump sum at the point you access the pension, or drawn down piece-by-piece across multiple withdrawals (so-called 'UFPLS' — Uncrystallised Funds Pension Lump Sums). Defined Benefit schemes typically pay a tax-free commutation lump sum calculated under a scheme-specific commutation factor.

PlainPension derives its rates and rules from DWP (State Pension), HMRC (Annual Allowance, taper, MPAA, tax-free lump sum cap, NI rates), MoneyHelper (consumer guidance), and the FCA Register (provider regulation). State Pension rates refresh within 30 days of the annual rate-uprating order taking effect in April. Annual Allowance and lump-sum cap refresh within 14 days of any Budget change. The full source-to-publication chain is documented on our /methodology page.

For nearly every employee in the UK, the workplace pension comes first because of the employer match. Auto-enrolment requires your employer to contribute at least 3% of qualifying earnings while you contribute 5% — that 3% is free money you cannot replicate elsewhere. Most workers should fully capture the workplace employer match before opening a SIPP. SIPPs become useful once the match is maxed (especially for higher-rate taxpayers), for the self-employed who have no workplace scheme, and for consolidating multiple old workplace pots into one investment-flexible wrapper.

No. PlainPension is an information-only service. We explain DWP, HMRC, MoneyHelper, and FCA rules from public sources, but we do not recommend specific products, providers, or investment strategies. Pension decisions are highly personal and often irreversible — for material decisions (especially Defined Benefit transfers, drawdown sequencing, and annuity purchase) use the free MoneyHelper service or consult an FCA-regulated financial adviser.