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Pension allowances and tax benefits

Find out how to make the most of the tax-efficient pension allowances with our handy guides. They can help you understand what allowances and limits might apply to you and how to maximise your pension savings.

Tax relief & Retirement Planning

Tax relief is a government tax-break intended to encourage you to save for your retirement. The amount of tax relief you are entitled to depends on a range of factors relating to your personal situation. We can help you understand more about how the tax relief rules might affect your contributions.

Find out more about tax relief

Lifetime allowance

The lifetime allowance is set by the government to limit how much you can build up in pension benefits over your lifetime while still enjoying full tax benefits. We can help you understand more about how you can manage this allowance to maximise the tax efficiency of your pensions.

Find out more about lifetime allowance

Annual allowance

The annual allowance is the limit on how much you can save into your pensions each tax-year while still benefiting from tax relief on your contributions, any employer contributions and any contributions made on your behalf by someone else.

Find out more about annual allowance

Tapered annual allowance

The tapered annual allowance further limits the amount of tax relief high earners can claim on their pension contributions by reducing the annual allowance. Read more about how this might affect you and the steps you can take to make your contributions more tax-efficient.

Find out about tapered annual allowance

Carry forward

Carry forward allows you to make use of unused annual allowances from the three previous tax years if you have used up your annual allowance for the current tax year, thus increasing the amount of tax relief you can claim. Find out how this works and how you might be able to claim it.

Find out about carry forward

Money purchase annual allowance

Once you begin taking taxable money from your pension pot using pension freedoms, generally you will be subject to a reduced annual allowance that limits the tax relief that you can receive on future contributions. Find out more about how and if this might affect you.

Find out about money purchase annual allowance

The value of investments can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. Tax treatment and eligibility to invest in a pension depend on personal circumstances. All tax rules may change in future.

This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular product, service or course of action. Pension and retirement planning can be complex, so if you are unsure about the suitability of a pension investment, retirement service or any action you need to take, please call our Workplace Investing Service Centre on 0800 3 68 68 68 or refer to an authorised financial adviser.

The minimum age you can normally access your pension savings is currently 55, and is due to rise to 57 on 6 April 2028, unless you have a lower protected pension age.