How Much Should I Put in My Pension? A UK Guide

The short answer

How much should I put in my pension?

There is no single right amount, but there are sensible markers. The workplace minimum is 8% of qualifying earnings. Pensions UK, the body that represents workplace pension schemes and was formerly the PLSA, has called for that to rise to 12% of total salary, split between employer and employee, in its Hitting the Target report. If you started late, you may need to aim for 15% or more.

A popular rule of thumb is to take the age you start saving, halve it, and put that percentage of your salary in for the rest of your working life. Start at 30 and that means 15%. Start at 50 and it means 25%. It is not official guidance, but it makes the point well: the later you start, the more each year has to do.

The minimum

What is the minimum pension contribution?

For workplace pensions it is 8% of your qualifying earnings, of which your employer must pay at least 3% and you pay the rest, including tax relief, according to GOV.UK. Qualifying earnings for 2026/27 are your earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year, so the first £6,240 and anything over £50,270 do not count, as the DWP confirms. Northern Ireland has its own automatic enrolment law, with the same figures.

You can join a workplace pension even if you are not enrolled automatically, for example if you earn less than £10,000 or are under 22, as GOV.UK explains.

Is it enough?

Is the minimum pension contribution enough?

For many people, probably not. The DWP's Analysis of Future Pension Incomes 2025 says around 43% of working age people, about 14.6 million, are undersaving for retirement, measured against the income they would need to keep a similar standard of living. Higher earners were more likely to be undersaving than lower earners.

The minimum was designed as a starting point, and the government's Pensions Commission, which is looking at whether people are saving enough for retirement, is due to give its final report in 2027. Until it reports, plan on paying in more than the minimum if you can afford to.

Your target

How much pension will you need in retirement?

It depends on the life you want. Pensions UK's Retirement Living Standards, updated in 2026, estimate what a year of retirement costs at three levels, assuming you own your home outright. These are spending figures, so you may need a higher income before tax to reach them.

The State Pension covers part of it. The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week in 2026/27, about £12,548 a year, according to the DWP. You usually need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance for the full amount, and at least 10 to get any, and you can check your own figure with a free State Pension forecast. Your private and workplace pensions need to fill the gap between that and the income you want.

To see what a particular pot might pay, read our guide to what a £300k pension pot could give you, or compare your savings with the average pension pot in the UK.

By salary

What percentage of your salary should go into your pension?

Aim for the share that gets you to your target income, and for many people that is more than the minimum. The DWP measures whether people are saving enough against target replacement rates, the share of their working income they would need in retirement to keep a similar standard of living. Lower earners have a higher target.

These come from the DWP's 2025 analysis and include the State Pension. Someone earning £35,000 would be aiming for around two thirds of that, or about £23,450 a year, from the State Pension and their own pensions together. MoneyHelper's free pension calculator will show roughly what you need to pay in to get there.

Tax relief

How does tax relief boost your pension?

You get tax relief at the rate of income tax you pay, and higher rate relief only applies up to the amount of income taxed at that rate. If your pension uses relief at source, you pay £80 and your provider claims £20 from HMRC, so £100 goes in. Higher and additional rate taxpayers can claim a further 20% or 25% through Self Assessment, according to GOV.UK. If your employer takes contributions from your pay before tax, you get the relief straight away. Scottish taxpayers have different bands, so the extra relief they can claim through Self Assessment ranges from 1% to 28%, depending on the rate they pay.

Relief applies to contributions up to 100% of your earnings each year, within the annual allowance. For 2026/27 the annual allowance is £60,000 for most people, with a lower, tapered allowance for very high earners and a £10,000 money purchase annual allowance for defined contribution savings once you have taken flexible income from a pension, according to HMRC. Unused allowance from the previous three tax years can sometimes be carried forward.

If you pay through salary sacrifice, you and your employer also save National Insurance. From 6 April 2029, only the first £2,000 a year sacrificed into a pension will be free of National Insurance, according to HMRC. The income tax treatment does not change.

Self-employed

How much should you pay in if you are self-employed?

More than you might think, because no employer is adding anything. If you want to match what a well paid employee gets from a good workplace scheme, you have to put in both shares yourself. Paying into a personal pension gets basic rate relief added automatically, and higher rate relief through your tax return. Our guide to pensions for the self-employed covers it in more detail.

Irregular income makes a fixed monthly amount hard, so one approach is to pay a smaller regular amount and top it up before the tax year ends on 5 April, once you have a good idea of your profits. Contributions count towards the tax year in which they are paid and cannot be backdated to a previous tax year.

Starting late

What if you start saving for a pension later in life?

It is still worth doing, but you will need to put in a larger share of your pay to reach the same income. Each pound has fewer years to grow, so more of the work has to be done by what you pay in. The usual ways to catch up are to raise your percentage with each pay rise, ask your employer about matching, use any bonus, and carry forward unused allowance if you have a lump sum.

Bear in mind when you will be able to use it. The minimum age to take money from a personal or workplace pension is 55, rising to 57 from 6 April 2028. If you might need the money sooner, a pension may not be the right home for all of it, and our guide to pensions versus savings looks at the choice.

On a tight budget

What if you cannot afford to pay much in?

Pay what you can and keep your employer's contribution. Staying in your workplace pension at the minimum is usually far better than opting out, because you would lose your employer's money as well as the tax relief. Small increases are easier to manage than big ones. One simple approach is to add 1% each time you get a pay rise, before you get used to the extra income.

If you have expensive debts, such as credit cards, clearing them is often a better first step than paying in more than the minimum. Keep a few months of spending in an easy access account too, so an unexpected bill does not mean stopping your pension.

Getting help

Do you need advice on how much to pay into your pension?

Not always. If you are in a workplace pension, paying at least enough to get your employer's full contribution, and you have checked your State Pension forecast, MoneyHelper's free tools and guidance may be all you need. Guidance is not a personal recommendation. Paid advice may be particularly useful where the decision is significant, complex, tax sensitive or difficult to reverse.

That might be if you have several old pensions, are self-employed, earn enough to be affected by the tapered annual allowance, or want to retire early. Joanne can look at what you have, the income you want and what it would take to get there. Our retirement and pension advice page explains how she works.

Common questions

Pension contribution questions, answered

This guide is general information only. It is not personal financial advice and it does not take account of your circumstances. Figures are for the 2026/27 tax year and can change. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change in future. The value of pensions and investments can fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than you invested. You cannot normally take money from a personal or workplace pension until age 55, rising to 57 from April 2028.

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