Sunny Bharj
Independent Financial Adviser
Tony Springer
Independent Financial Adviser
The State Pension pays about £12,548 a year in full. What your own pot has to do is fill the gap between that and the life you want.
Pensions UK, formerly the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, publishes three Retirement Living Standards each year. For one person outside London who owns their home, the 2026 figures are £13,900 a year at the minimum, £32,700 at the moderate standard and £45,400 at the comfortable one.
The pages below take pot sizes from £100,000 to £1 million and set out the tax-free part, the taxed part and how long each would cover the gap at each standard. The sums use no investment growth, so they show the money itself.
State Pension: gov.uk, 2026/27 weekly rate of £241.30, multiplied by 52. Retirement Living Standards: Pensions UK, published 3 June 2026, single person, outside London, assuming the home is owned. Tax: gov.uk, 2026/27. All checked 2 October 2026. The sums assume no investment growth and no losses.
For two people the standards are £22,500, £45,400 and £62,700. In London they are higher, from £14,600 for one person at the minimum to £64,800 for two at the comfortable level.
It depends on the life you want and when you stop work. Pensions UK's moderate standard for one person is £32,700 a year. After the full State Pension that leaves about £20,152 a year to fund yourself.
No. The standards are spending. Pension income above your personal allowance is taxed, so the income you draw has to be higher than the spending figure.
Because nobody knows what they will be. The sums show what the money itself covers. Growth would stretch it further and losses would shorten it.
The value of investments and any income from them can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invest. Figures are illustrations using 2026/27 rules and the full new State Pension, with no growth assumed. Tax depends on your circumstances and can change.
£25,000 tax free, and about 5 years of the moderate gap. Cashing it in one year is costly.
Read the answer →£50,000 tax free, and about 9.9 years of the moderate gap after the State Pension.
Read the answer →£62,500 tax free. Drawn steadily, much of it can stay in the 20% band.
Read the answer →£75,000 tax free, and about 14.9 years of the moderate gap before any growth.
Read the answer →£125,000 tax free. From April 2027 what is left counts towards inheritance tax.
Read the answer →£187,500 tax free. Big withdrawals can reach the 60% effective rate.
Read the answer →£250,000 tax free, close to the £268,275 cap. Inheritance tax applies from 2027.
Read the answer →Independent Financial Adviser
Independent Financial Adviser
A first conversation of about twenty minutes, at no cost to you. Tell us what is on your mind: a pension you have lost track of, a fixed rate ending, a will you keep meaning to write.