The figures on a pension dashboard estimate your potential retirement income and help you assess if you’re on track. Use them to decide if you’re contributing enough and when you might retire.
Will I have enough?
A pension dashboard can help you to get a full picture of your potential retirement income, but how do you know what income you will need in the future?
The Retirement Living Standards, based on independent research by Loughborough University, have been developed to help us to picture what kind of lifestyle we could have in retirement. You can read more about these standards and what they mean in ‘Will you be able to afford the future you want?’.
Use our Retirement Lifestyle Modeller to help you understand your potential spending in retirement
If you don’t think your current savings will be enough you could consider paying more into your current pension. You can contact your employer or current pension plan provider to find out how.
Retiring
As you get closer to retirement you can use the information on a pension dashboard to help you decide when you want to retire and, in some cases, how you want to take your savings.
You may be able to start taking all your pensions at the same time or in the same way for example:
- State Pension will not be paid until your State Pension Age (SPA) which is currently 66 but will gradually rise to 68 between 2044 and 2046.
- You may be able to retire earlier than this from some of your employer schemes.
- If you have a Defined Contribution pension you can choose how you take your pension (cash lump sum, flexible drawdown payments or an income for life) which may give you more flexibility in how and when you retire.
A pension dashboard will tell you when each of your pensions can be paid from and what payment options you have to help you work out when you want to retire.
It’s important to remember that although pension dashboards are a useful tool in retirement planning they are not guidance or advice and as you get closer to retirement you should consider your options more closely. Make sure you contact your provider directly to get the most up-to-date savings figures, most have an online portal where you can login to see this information.
You may also want to speak to an Independent Financial Advisor (IFA)– you can find a list of IFAs on www.unbiased.co.uk. Some of your pension schemes may offer free or discounted retirement guidance or advice. You can find contact details for your providers through the pension dashboard to see what services they offer.
