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Check your pension annual allowance

Check your pension annual allowance

Check your pension annual allowance

Use this checklist to work through the pension annual allowance for 2026/27. The standard figure is a starting point, not necessarily your personal limit.

1. Start with the standard allowance

For most people, the standard annual allowance is £60,000 across all pensions. It includes contributions from you, your employer and anyone else, plus tax relief, and it also counts growth in defined benefit pensions using a statutory calculation.

2. Check whether a lower allowance applies

  • Money Purchase Annual Allowance: usually £10,000 for defined contribution saving after certain flexible pension withdrawals. Carry forward cannot increase it.

  • Tapered annual allowance: may apply if threshold income is over £200,000 and adjusted income is over £260,000. The minimum tapered allowance is £10,000.

3. Check your personal tax-relief limit

Tax relief on your own contributions is normally limited to 100% of relevant UK earnings. If you have low or no earnings and are under 75, you can normally pay £2,880 net into a relief-at-source pension and have it topped up to £3,600 gross.

4. Add any carry forward

For 2026/27, unused annual allowance may be carried forward from 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26. You must have been a member of a registered pension scheme in each year used, and you use the current year’s allowance first.

5. Add up every pension

Check contributions and pension input amounts across every scheme, not just one provider. Ask each scheme for a pension savings statement if you need the figures.

If you may be over the allowance

Work out the excess and any annual allowance tax charge. Report it through Self Assessment even if your scheme pays some or all of it. Mandatory scheme pays has conditions, including a charge over £2,000, scheme saving above the standard allowance and a deadline; some schemes also offer voluntary scheme pays.

Read the detailed guide

For examples and a fuller explanation, read How much can I pay into my pension each year?.

This guide is for information only and is not personal tax or financial advice. If you may be close to a limit, consider regulated professional advice.

Penny can help

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SOME IMPORTANT THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
Pensions are long terms investments. It’s important that you know the value of your investment could go up as well as down. You could get back less than you put in. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to the future and pension investing is not intended to be a short-term option. Penny does not provide financial advice so please be sure that this investment is right for you.

Your current pension might have special benefits that will be lost if you transfer to Penny. These special benefits include: Guaranteed Annuity Rate (GAR), Guaranteed Bonus Rate (GBR), Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) and Protected Tax Free Cash (PFTC) over 25%. If this is the case, we will not transfer your pension, as you may be better off not transferring in these cases.

Your current provider might charge you a transfer-fee to transfer your pension to Penny. If this is the case, we will not transfer your pension, as you may be better off not transferring in these cases.

You should consider the charges and benefits before transferring your old pensions to your new plan, and consider whether the risk and reward profile of the investments offered matches your needs. It may be that your current provider has lower fees than Penny - where this is the case, we recommend that you carefully consider whether to transfer your pension to Penny, as you may be better off not transferring in these cases.

If you are in any doubt about proceeding you should contact a financial adviser.
© Copyright 2026 Penny Technology Limited. Company registration: 11999643. FCA Reference Number: 931299.
PENSION
FAQs
FUNDS
FEES
iOS APP
ANDROID APP
COMPANY
ABOUT
FCA AUTHORISED
HELP & SUPPORT
TRANSFERS DUE DILIGENCE
RESOURCES
Articles
Scam Smart
MoneyHelper
TERMS & CONDITIONS
PRIVACY POLICY
SOCIAL
Linkedin
instagram
SOME IMPORTANT THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
Pensions are long terms investments. It’s important that you know the value of your investment could go up as well as down. You could get back less than you put in. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to the future and pension investing is not intended to be a short-term option. Penny does not provide financial advice so please be sure that this investment is right for you.

Your current pension might have special benefits that will be lost if you transfer to Penny. These special benefits include: Guaranteed Annuity Rate (GAR), Guaranteed Bonus Rate (GBR), Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) and Protected Tax Free Cash (PFTC) over 25%. If this is the case, we will not transfer your pension, as you may be better off not transferring in these cases.

Your current provider might charge you a transfer-fee to transfer your pension to Penny. If this is the case, we will not transfer your pension, as you may be better off not transferring in these cases.

You should consider the charges and benefits before transferring your old pensions to your new plan, and consider whether the risk and reward profile of the investments offered matches your needs. It may be that your current provider has lower fees than Penny - where this is the case, we recommend that you carefully consider whether to transfer your pension to Penny, as you may be better off not transferring in these cases.

If you are in any doubt about proceeding you should contact a financial adviser.
© Copyright 2025 Penny Technology Limited. Company registration: 11999643. FCA Reference Number: 931299.