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Retiring soon

Step 1 – Take stock

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Find out where your income in retirement is coming from.

State pension

  • Before you retire, get an idea of how much State Pension you will be receiving, including your entitlement to the State Second Pension (formerly SERPS), by getting a pension forecast from The Pension Service – see Get more help.
  • The Pension Service will write to you about four months before you reach State Pension age inviting you to claim your State Pension (65 for men, 60 for women – although this will gradually increase to 65 between 2010 and 2020). If you don't hear from them, contact the Pension Service office for your area.
  • Do you need to start drawing your State Pension when you reach State Pension age? You can postpone it and get either extra State Pension or a one-off, taxable lump sum payment when you do claim it. See Get more help.

Other pensions

  • You may be a member of your current employer's pension scheme or have started your own private pension.
  • Think back to all the employers you've worked for and write down all the possible pension plans you may have.

Tracing a past pension

  • If you've lost track of a pension you had, contact the Pension Tracing Service. This is a database with over 200,000 occupational and personal pension schemes – it could include one you've lost track of. This is a free service. See Get more help.
  • If you contracted out of the State Second Pension (formerly SERPS) you could have a personal or stakeholder pension into which your 'rebates' have been paid. If you're not sure whether you were contracted out, call the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) helpline on 0845 915 0150 (call rates may vary).

Next steps

  • Contact the pension providers or scheme administrators (contact details should be on any documents you have). You need to find out:
    • what your funds are worth;
    • what type of pension you have; and
    • how you'll get your income.
  • There are two main types of pension – salary related and money purchase. You'll need to know which type you have to know how you'll get your income.
  • If you are in a salary-related scheme, your pension administrators will pay your pension direct to you when you reach the retirement age set out in the scheme rules. If you are in a money purchase scheme – which includes occupational defined contribution pensions, group personal pensions, stakeholder and personal pensions – you usually use your fund to buy an income. For more information see Retirement options.

Savings and investments

  • Do you have any savings or investments you want to use to provide you with an income or to reduce your borrowing?

Tracing investments

  • Have you any other savings, investments or insurance policies you've forgotten about that you could draw an income from?

    The Unclaimed Assets Register has a database of unclaimed life policies, pensions, unit trust holdings, and share dividends drawn from many companies. You'll be charged a fixed fee – see Get more help.

Tracing bank accounts

  • Have you any savings or current accounts that you haven't used for a while? For example, you may have moved house and forgotten to notify your bank.

    You can trace lost accounts through a free service run by the British Bankers Association (BBA) and the Building Societies Association (BSA). Just complete a simple claim form, available from banks, building societies, libraries, Citizens Advice Bureaux, the BBA or the BSA – go to Get more help.

    You can also trace lost National Savings and Investments (NS&I) by downloading a form on their website - go to Get more help.

Unlocking your pension

If you're thinking of unlocking your pension before you actually retire bear in mind that it will reduce what you have left to cover your retirement. Pensions unlocking is a way of taking your pension benefits before you retire – see our Pensions guide. You can download it or order it online from Publications.

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