In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to overlook long-term financial planning, but ensuring a comfortable retirement starts with paying attention to your pension now.
This year’s Pay Your Pension Some Attention campaign, themed ‘Face Forward,’ encourages all of us to think more about our future and where we stand on our pension journey.
There are three simple steps that you can take which will help you later:
- Find lost pension pots – There may be unclaimed pensions from your past employment waiting to boost your retirement savings. Visit GOV.UK to get started.
- Log in to your pensions accounts – Check your total current savings in any private pensions and then use tools such as Money Helper’s Pension Calculator to estimate your future income.
- Picture your future self and how much you’ll need – Consider how much income you’ll need in retirement and start planning now with resources like the Retirement Living Standards.
Don’t forget to check your pension statement
Once you’ve got an idea of how much you should be saving, you can check your pension statement on your online pension account to see if you’re saving enough.
You’ll find your statement under the ‘Pension Benefits’ section of your dashboard, and a link to guidance notes is available on the right-hand side of the screen.
If you’d like to pay more into your pension, you can review your options here. You can also find some helpful videos and guides on our support page.
Not registered for an online pension account yet?
If you don’t already have a pension account, we recommend creating one as the benefits are numerous! Simply sign up, by entering your surname, National Insurance Number, date of birth, and email address.
With your online pension account, you can:
- update your address and who you want to nominate to get the lump sum death grant.
- see how much your pension might be if you take it at a date other than your normal pension age.
- look at your options for exchanging some of your pension for a larger lump sum.
- see your pension statements and any letters from us.
If you need help signing up, please visit our support page.
