Pension calculator

About this pension calculator

All figures take account of inflation and show the buying power of your pension in today's money. You can find out more about how this calculator works below, including what figures, calculations, and assumptions are used.

It’s not personal advice or suitable for calculating the potential income from a defined benefit scheme, e.g. a final salary scheme. If you’re not sure what’s best for your situation, you should seek personal advice. All figures are a guide and not guaranteed. The value of investments can fall as well as rise, so could be more or less than those shown here.

• Calculations and assumptions used

  Regular contributions are assumed to increase in line with inflation and to be paid monthly in advance.

  Inflation - The calculator allows for annual investment growth of 2%, 5% or 8%. When calculating how regular contributions might increase, inflation is assumed to be 3% if investment growth is 5%. For 2% growth, inflation is 1% and for 8% growth it is 5%. When converting the final fund value and income to today’s money, inflation is always assumed to be 2% per year. These assumptions are set down by the Financial Conduct Authority for pension projections. The default investment growth setting is 5% and can be changed in advanced options.

  State Pension - We’ve assumed you’ll qualify for a full new State Pension. If your selected retirement age is greater than your State Pension age, we’ve assumed that you’ll defer your State Pension until your chosen retirement age. The State Pension figure we add will be increased to reflect this. We’ve also assumed the State Pension will increase in line with inflation depending on the growth rate selected, as for any regular contributions (see “Inflation” above). When converting this to an estimated annual income it is reduced by 2% a year in line with FCA rules on pension projections; this means the calculator may show the amount of State Pension included in your estimated income to be more than the current amount of the State Pension.

  Annuity rates used are based on Financial Conduct Authority rules for the calculation of a future annuity, unless your retirement age is less than a year away when the annuity shown uses current rates from a range of providers. All annuities are assumed to be paid at the start of each payment period.

  Your spouse/partner - If you’re male, your spouse/partner is assumed to be 3 years younger than you. If you’re female, your spouse/partner is assumed to be 3 years older than you. These assumptions are based on industry standards and may not reflect your circumstances.

  Tax-free cash and charges - This calculator assumes you can take 25% of your pension tax free, up to the maximum £268,275 cap (based on current rules). The calculator doesn’t take into account any enhanced tax-free cash entitlement you may have (for example protection against the lifetime allowance), or tax charges (such as income tax deducted from pensions in payment or which may apply to contributions over the annual allowance). Tax rules can change, and benefits depend on personal circumstances.

  Please note: an accurate value of your pension savings and retirement income will depend on several actual factors, including your investment performance, the contributions made into your pension, the charges, inflation, the age you stop working, the annuity rates at the time, and options you choose.