What next?

For pension savers

Can you picture your lifestyle in retirement?

We’ve created the Retirement Living Standards to help you think in a practical way about what you’ll need or want to spend your money on.

To help you understand where you might end up, our series of examples — show what kind of living standard different people could have in retirement depending on their salaries, household and savings.

And to help you start to plan for the lifestyle you want, here are three ways to get more information about your own pensions savings and how to manage them.

  1. Get to know your State Pension

The full State Pension for 2025-26 is £230.25 a week (£11,973 per year). That goes a long way to reaching the Minimum Retirement Living Standard for single pensioners, two pensioners each on the full State Pension would achieve the Minimum..

Retirement planning from the Department for Work and Pensions, includes further information on simple steps to take to start retirement planning.

  1. Find more information about how to manage your pension

To help you understand more about your pension and what you can expect in retirement, you could try the following sources of information:

  1. Talk to your employer or pension provider

For most people, saving into your workplace pension after you’re automatically enrolled should mean you can expect somewhere between a Minimum and Moderate standard of living. If you’re self-employed, you can still contribute to a pension.

Your employer or pension provider can give you more information about how much you’re paying in from your own salary, how much your employer is contributing and how much the government is contributing through tax relief.

You'll will receive an annual pension statement making these clear. Some pension providers will also have a website and some offer online calculators to help you understand how much you could have in your pension pot by the time you retire. You should also check you’re on track for 35 qualifying years to get the full State Pension, this can be done via the government website at www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

We’re working with pension schemes and providers to make the Retirement Living Standards part of the way they communicate with you so that you can plan for the lifestyle you picture in retirement.

  1. Find out what benefits you might be able to claim

There are a number of benefits you may be entitled to through your working life as well as in retirement. As well as your State Pension you could be eligible to claim extra money to help with living costs, like the winter fuel allowance, free transport passes and other housing or health care benefits.

To find out what benefits could be available to you in retirement visit Moneyhelper

The pensions industry can find more information on the supporters page.