CalculateMyPension

• Plan for retirement as a couple by modelling both of your pensions together and recognising the shared cost advantages of living under one roof.
• Uses the official couple's cost of living benchmarks from the Retirement Living Standards (Minimum, Moderate and Comfortable standards of living).
• See the exact age (years and months) at which you can afford to retire together, based on your chosen combined retirement income target.
• Explore smarter contribution strategies by redirecting pension savings between you and your partner to reduce tax drag where one of you pays a higher marginal rate.
• Instantly quantify how improved joint tax efficiency could move your retirement date forward — and understand the real-world impact on when you can stop working together.

• Download a retirement guide, bringing together the key inputs, assumptions and projected outcomes in one place.
• Use it as a practical reference when reviewing scenarios, comparing options, or preparing for a conversation with Pension Wise or a regulated financial adviser.

• See how much you can pay into your pension this tax year using unused annual allowance from the last three tax years, with the taper and the Money Purchase Annual Allowance built in.
• Works for employees, the self-employed and company directors: shows the most you can pay in personally and the most your employer or company can pay in.
• Shows the tax relief and net cost of a planned personal contribution, any annual allowance charge, and the allowance you lose if it isn't used by 5 April.
• Save the result to your plan and use it as a one-off pension contribution with one switch.

• Add a single pension contribution in the first year of your plan – for example part of a bonus, or profits your own limited company pays in for you.
• Enter it gross or net: tax relief is added to personal contributions, and company or employer contributions go in gross.
• See straight away how it changes your affordable retirement age and income, for you or your partner.

• Model a defined benefit lump sum paid by your scheme alongside the annual pension.
• CMP applies your remaining Lump Sum Allowance, treats any excess as taxable pension income, and shows the impact in the year the lump sum is paid.
• Where the tax-free part is available for reinvestment, the projection can reflect how it supports ISA funding and later cashflow.

• Add extra defined benefit pensions where you have more than one scheme, while keeping your largest or most important scheme in the main DB section.
• Set the annual pension amount, start age and indexation treatment for each additional scheme.
• Each pension is included in the retirement income breakdown and taxed alongside State Pension, drawdown and other income.

• Experiment with taking a reduced defined benefit pension before the scheme's normal pension age.
• Enter scheme-specific early retirement factors where available, so CMP can estimate the annual pension and tax-free lump sum payable at the selected age.
• See how starting guaranteed income earlier changes pension withdrawals, tax, fund balances and the income needed from other sources.

• Choose the age you claim your 1995 or 2008 Section benefits and your 2015 Scheme benefits, from the scheme's minimum pension age up to 75.
• The scheme's published early retirement reduction factors are applied to the pension and lump sum, with late retirement increases where 2008 and 2015 benefits are taken later while you are still in NHS employment.
• See how claiming each part earlier or later changes your affordable income or retirement age, your tax and the income needed from your other savings.

• Treat part-time earnings after retirement as continuing NHS pay, so your 2015 Scheme pension keeps building up and your 1995 or 2008 Section benefits keep their link to pay until you stop.
• Late retirement increases apply while you are still working in the NHS.

• Model both partners' NHS pensions, each with their own parts, lump sum choices and claim ages.
• See the age at which you can afford to retire together, with both NHS pensions in the plan.

• The downloadable Retirement Guide shows each part of your NHS pension, and each lump sum, at the age it is paid.
• A dedicated page explains your own NHS pension and your options, and the projection timeline marks when each part starts.

Your tax-free cash is one of the most valuable features of your pension, but the way you use it can make a significant difference to your retirement income over time.

Calculate My Pension lets you test three clear strategies:

• Take your tax-free lump sum at retirement and spend it immediately.
• Drip feed £20,000 of it into your ISA each year.
• Use UFPLS, where 25% of each withdrawal is tax-free until your Lump Sum Allowance is used up.

It is easy to compare the impact of each strategy on your long term affordable income. You can also combine two of the three strategies for a hybrid approach.

• Compare PCLS, Phased Drawdown and UFPLS: take tax-free cash at retirement, release it gradually, or take withdrawals where 25% of each eligible payment is tax free.
• See how each approach changes taxable pension income, ISA balances, remaining pension funds and the timing of Lump Sum Allowance usage.
• Model the trade-off between receiving tax-free cash early and spreading tax-free pension withdrawals across retirement.

• Test the impact of redirecting contributions from your pension into your ISA, or vice versa.
• Instantly see the impact of this on your earliest retirement age. The extent of the effect very much depends on your individual circumstances, along with the economic scenario you are using.
• Understand the value of pension tax relief you are giving up in exchange for greater financial flexibility.

• Model how pension and ISA money are drawn in retirement, so you can compare withdrawal strategies and the effect on lifetime tax.
• Fill your Personal Allowance from pension withdrawals first, and optionally extend this to the basic-rate band where paying some 20% tax now may avoid higher-rate tax later.
• See the trade-off directly in the Income Breakdown and Tax by Tax Band charts, including how State Pension and defined benefit income reduce the room available for tax-free pension withdrawals.

Access to three additional charts relating to tax payments:

• Tax By Tax Band: See the breakdown of your tax payments in each retirement year split by tax band. This makes it easy to see how you might adjust your plans to reduce overall tax payments.
• Tax Free Allowance: See the cumulative tax free allowance as up to 25% of your pension income is tax free but only up to a lifetime maximum of £268,275. When this limit is reached you will see a significant increase in tax, so it is worth considering adjustments to your drawdown plan to avoid this.
• Marginal Tax Rate: See your projected marginal income tax rate over time, based on the tax due on the next £100 of gross income in each year. This helps you identify when extra taxable income is likely to be taxed at a higher rate.

• Project inheritance tax liability over time directly on the Analysis page, alongside your pension and ISA projections.
• See when estimated inheritance tax exceeds accessible assets, highlighting potential pressure on the family home.
• Test planning options such as minimum ISA balance targets and assumptions around pension use after age 75 to manage inheritance tax outcomes.

• Stress-test your retirement plans by simulating a market crash.
• Choose the age at which the crash occurs and the percentage fall.
• See the impact on your retirement age of a sudden market crash just before you were planning to retire.
• Or if you are already retired, see the impact of your sustainable income if a crash were to occur. How much would you need to reduce your spending by?

• Set a cash buffer as a fixed amount and/or a percentage of your funds
• Set the expected interest rate on your cash balances
• Use alongside the market crash scenario to see the level of protection
• Quatify the trade off between reduced investment risk and lower long term returns

• Annuities provide a guaranteed income for life, removing the stress of volatile fund values and the risk of poor long term fund growth. They also insure you against living longer than were expecting to.
• They are back in fashion as annuity rates have increased dramatically over the last few years, driven by the rise in interest rates.
• With this premium feature you can investigate purchasing an annuity for different amounts at different ages and see the impact on your sustainable retirement income.
• To ensure the rates used by the calculation reflect your circumstances and the latest market rates, an Annuity Rate Calibration Tool is also provided to align the conversion rates to the level that are currently available.

See the effect of possible changes to government policy on your retirement age or income:

• State Pension Age: See the effect on your earliest affordable retirement age if the state pension age is raised to 70.
• Tax Band Freeze: Tax bands are currently frozen until 2031. See the effect of a possible extension to this freeze on your retirement age. You can specify the number of extra years to freeze the bands.
• Tax Free Lump Sum Limits: See the impact on your retirement plans of a reduction of the 25% tax free lump sum maximum. Also see what would happen if the lifetime limit on tax free cash of £268,275 is reduced.

• Plan a temporary uplift in spending for a set period of retirement.
• Particularly useful when planning as a couple to cover any early shortfalls your partner has, or vice versa.
• Choose the Age To Commence Boost, the Percentage Boost, and the Number of Years.

• Add any number of one-off retirement costs, such as a car, wedding, major holiday or home repairs, as fixed pound amounts.
• Specify each expense by age, calendar year or number of years from now. Use Today's Money to increase a current estimate to the payment year using the plan's inflation assumption.
• The cost increases the cash required in that retirement year and follows the normal withdrawal and tax calculation. Expenses dated before the calculated retirement age are ignored.

• One very effective way to boost your early retirement spending, or retire earlier, is to plan ahead for lower income needs in your later retirement years.
• It is often the case that people slow down their activity once past their mid-70s. Your required spending may decrease. Specifically planning for this allows you to maximise activity in those early years.
• With this premium feature you can specify the age at which and by what percentage your income will reduce, in two separate steps, and instantly see how this strategy impacts your retirement income or allows an earlier retirement.

• Set a minimum ISA balance cushion to keep in place throughout retirement.
• Specify your Minimum ISA Balance (£) to preserve flexibility for later years or unexpected costs.
• See how maintaining this floor impacts your sustainable income and retirement timing.

• Model the effect of deferring your State Pension beyond your State Pension age.
• See how a higher later State Pension compares with the extra income needed from pensions, ISAs or other savings during the deferral period.
• When planning as a couple, test deferral separately for each person so the timing of guaranteed income reflects each partner's own State Pension age.

• Add part-time earnings during retirement and choose the age at which they stop.
• The income is included in the retirement income breakdown and taxed alongside pension withdrawals.
• When planning as a couple, the same modelling can be applied separately for your partner.

• Model monthly rental income after allowable expenses, with tax applied in the same way as other earned income.
• Add the rental property value, age at sale, and allowable deductions on sale to estimate capital gains tax.
• At sale, the net property proceeds are added to the GIA balance and shown in the GIA cashflow and fund value projections.

• Add a current General Investment Account balance and track it separately in the GIA cashflow table.
• Choose whether to drip-feed £20,000 per year into your ISA and set a constant tax drag assumption for GIA growth.
• GIA withdrawals are prioritised before ISA withdrawals once the plan needs ISA-style income, with the remaining balance included in fund charts and inheritance tax projections.

• Add planned lump sums at specific ages, such as maturing gilts, fixed-term savings, bond ladders, bonuses or other one-off receipts.
• Enter each amount separately and specify its timing by age, calendar year or number of years from now.
• The amounts are added into the GIA cashflow, helping you see how known future cash receipts could support withdrawals, reduce pressure on pensions or ISAs, and affect later balances.

• Add any number of expected inheritances and specify when each is received by age, calendar year or number of years from now.
• Enter the amount expected on receipt, or use Today's Money and set an individual annual growth rate to project a current estimate forward.
• Each resulting inheritance enters that person's GIA in the selected year, then follows the normal GIA growth, ISA transfer and withdrawal rules. Your partner can maintain a separate list.