This guide compares ONS figures for private pension wealth by age with common savings benchmarks. Knowing where you stand is the first step to doing something about it.
The full new state pension in 2026/27 is £12,547.60 per year (£241.30 per week). That is less than the Pensions UK minimum standard for a single person. Private pension savings are what bridges the gap between the state pension and the income needed to maintain your standard of living in retirement.
This guide shows average and median pension pots by age group, the retirement income targets you should be aiming for, and practical steps to take if you are behind. It also covers how you can expect to access your savings when you do retire — because understanding your options now shapes how you save.
For broader pension planning, see our Pension Planning hub and our guide to State Pension Amount 2026/27. To see your personal forecast and NI record, use our State Pension Forecast guide.
Average Pension Pot by Age UK
Understanding where the “average” person stands at each stage of life is useful context, but a typical pot says little about what you personally need.
The figures below are ONS estimates of private pension wealth by age for Great Britain, April 2018 to March 2020, from the Wealth and Assets Survey, using ONS’s updated method for valuing defined benefit pensions. They are calculated for people who have some private pension wealth, so people with no private pension are not included, and pots will have changed since.
| Age group | Median private pension wealth | Mean private pension wealth |
|---|---|---|
| 25–34 | £10,500 | £28,200 |
| 35–44 | £31,400 | £69,900 |
| 45–54 | £72,900 | £141,100 |
| 55–64 | £133,800 | £224,900 |
| 65–74 | £120,800 | £213,700 |
Why the mean is much higher than the median: A relatively small number of people with very large pensions pull the average up significantly. The median is the middle value — half of people in that age group have more, half have less. It is a better indicator of the “typical” person’s position, and the one you should compare yourself against.
The gap between the two figures tells a story. In the 55–64 age group, the mean is £224,900 but the median is £133,800, a gap of £91,100 (ONS, people with some private pension wealth). A smaller number of people with large pots pull the mean well above the typical figure.
Anyone in the 55–64 age group with no private pension is reliant on the state pension (up to £12,548 a year for the full new rate in 2026/27) and any savings, property equity, or other assets they hold. For most people, that is not enough to maintain a meaningful standard of living.
The median is lower for people aged 65 to 74 (£120,800) than for those aged 55 to 64 (£133,800).
To see how the averages compare against age-specific targets, see our detailed guides for age 25, age 30, age 35, age 40, age 45, age 50, age 55, and age 60.
How Much Should You Have Saved by Age?
Comparing yourself to the average is a useful reality check, but it is not the same as knowing whether you are on track. The question is not “am I average?” but “do I have enough to fund the retirement I want?” Two widely used benchmarks help answer that.
The Salary Multiple Rule
Salary multiples are used as rough milestones. The idea is simple: your savings, expressed as a multiple of your current salary, should grow steadily over your career. Fidelity UK’s guidelines give 1x salary at 30, 2x at 40, 4x at 50 and 6x at 60, and say the savings can be inside and outside pensions.
| Age | Target savings (multiple of current salary) |
|---|---|
| 30 | 1× salary |
| 40 | 2× salary |
| 50 | 4× salary |
| 60 | 6× salary |
On the UK median full-time salary of £40,911 (ONS ASHE, April 2026, provisional), these targets translate to:
| Age | Target savings |
|---|---|
| 30 | £41,000 |
| 40 | £82,000 |
| 50 | £164,000 |
| 60 | £245,000 |
Comparing these to the average pension pots above, the gap is stark: the typical person aged 35–44 has around £31,400 saved (ONS median, people with some private pension wealth) against the £82,000 salary-multiple target for age 40. At age 45–54, the median pot is £72,900 (ONS, people with some private pension wealth) against the £164,000 salary-multiple target for age 50. The targets count savings outside pensions too, so the comparison is rough, but many people look behind schedule.
This is not cause for panic — it is cause for action. The salary multiple rule is a planning device, not a verdict. It assumes consistent returns and contributions, and the targets are calibrated to average salaries. If you earn more, your targets are proportionally higher; if you have other assets or expect an inheritance, you may need less from your pension specifically. What matters is running the numbers for your own situation. See our Am I Saving Enough for Retirement? guide for a fuller analysis, or our How Much Pension Do I Need? calculator-style guide.
The Pensions UK Retirement Living Standards
A more granular way to check whether you are on track is to start from the income you will need, and work backwards to the pot required. Pensions UK (formerly the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association) publishes the Retirement Living Standards, benchmarks for retirement spending across three standards of living. They come from research with groups of people across the UK, who identified the goods, services and activities needed at each level, not from data on what retirees actually spend.
| Standard | Single person | Couple | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | £13,900/year | £22,500/year | Covers all your needs, with some left over for fun |
| Moderate | £32,700/year | £45,400/year | More financial security and flexibility |
| Comfortable | £45,400/year | £62,700/year | More financial freedom and some luxuries |
These figures are the yearly amounts needed to pay for each standard, not gross income, so you may need a higher income to cover tax. They assume you own your home outright. The full state pension (£12,548/year) contributes toward each standard, so the private pension needs to cover the gap.
To give a sense of what these standards mean in practice: at the moderate level, a single person can expect one foreign holiday per year and the occasional meal out. At the comfortable level, the standards include a fortnight’s holiday abroad, three long weekend breaks in the UK, a car replaced more often than at the moderate level, and £1,000 a year to support family members. The minimum standard covers basic needs with some left over for fun, such as a week’s holiday in the UK and eating out once a month.
How much private pension do you need?
Using a 4% annual drawdown rate (a rule of thumb from US research by William Bengen):
| Retirement standard | Total income needed | State pension contributes | Private pension income needed | Pension pot required (4% rule) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum | £13,900 | £12,548 | £1,352 | ~£33,800 |
| Moderate | £32,700 | £12,548 | £20,152 | ~£503,800 |
| Comfortable | £45,400 | £12,548 | £32,852 | ~£821,300 |
The pot figures in this table treat the after-tax spending levels as if they were income before tax, so they are likely to be too low once tax on private pension income is allowed for. The 4% rule is a rule of thumb from US research by William Bengen: it suggests that withdrawing 4% of your pot in the first year, then raising that amount with inflation, has historically lasted about 30 years in US data. It is a rough guide, and the research on UK retirees is mixed. A pot of £503,800 at 4% generates £20,152/year; combined with the state pension, that delivers a moderate retirement income. These are benchmarks, not guarantees. Actual drawdown rates, investment returns, and life expectancy will all vary.
It is also worth noting that many people with multiple pensions approach retirement with several pots accumulated over different jobs. If that applies to you, one of the first questions you will face is how to access your savings tax-efficiently. You can take up to 25% of each pot as a tax-free lump sum — but the rules around doing this across multiple pensions are more nuanced than they first appear. Our guide to taking multiple pension lump sums explains the Lump Sum Allowance (£268,275 lifetime limit), how phased withdrawals work, and whether it makes sense to consolidate before you start drawing income.
For the broader question of whether to take a lump sum at all, or draw an income instead, see our pension lump sum vs drawdown comparison and our drawdown vs annuity guide.
Worked Example: Am I on Track at 45?
Age 45 is one of the most important decision points in pension planning. You are close enough to retirement that the maths becomes concrete, but far enough away that there is still meaningful time for compound growth to work, and for a higher contribution rate to make a real difference. Our retirement planning at 40 guide covers this transition in more detail.
Lisa is 45 with a pension pot of £90,000. She earns £45,000/year and wants to reach Fidelity UK’s guideline of 6× salary by age 60, treating her pension as her only savings.
- Target pot at 60: Using the salary multiple guideline, 6× £45,000 = £270,000
- Current pot: £90,000
- Years to age 60: 15 years
- Gap to fill: £180,000
If Lisa’s existing £90,000 grows at 5% per year (net of charges), it will be worth approximately £187,000 in 15 years (£90,000 × 1.05¹⁵ ≈ £187,000), before any further contributions. She needs the remaining £83,000 (£270,000 target minus £187,000 growth) to come from new contributions over 15 years.
To accumulate £83,000 from new contributions in 15 years at 5% growth, she needs roughly £320/month gross in additional pension contributions, around £256/month net after 20% tax relief.
It illustrates why 45 is not “too late” to start saving seriously. The window for meaningful compound growth is narrower than at 25, but 15 years is still a long time. Every extra percentage point of contributions she makes now will matter far more than waiting another five years to act.
Lisa also has three old workplace pensions from previous employers, each worth roughly £25,000–£30,000. Before she retires, she will need to decide whether to consolidate these or draw from them separately. See our pension consolidation guide and our guide to taking tax-free cash from multiple pensions for the key considerations.
The State Pension: The Foundation of Retirement Income
The state pension is the floor on which everything else is built. Even if your private savings are modest, qualifying for the full state pension means you start retirement with an income of over £12,500 a year, which rises each year by the highest of earnings growth, CPI inflation or 2.5%.
The full new state pension in 2026/27 is £241.30 per week (£12,547.60 per year). To receive the full amount:
- You need 35 qualifying National Insurance years (more if you were contracted out before 2016)
- You usually need at least 10 qualifying years for any payment
- Each missing year reduces your state pension by approximately £359/year (£12,548 ÷ 35)
You can check your state pension forecast and NI record at gov.uk/check-state-pension, or see our State Pension forecast guide for a step-by-step walkthrough. If you have gaps in your NI record (perhaps from career breaks, self-employment years, or time spent abroad), you may be able to buy voluntary NI contributions (Class 3) for around £956.80 per missing year (2026/27 rate), which buys approximately £359/year extra state pension for life. At those figures the extra pension repays the cost in under three years, if the contribution does add to your state pension.
The state pension age is 66 for people born before 6 April 1960. It rises to 67 between 2026 and 2028 for people born from 6 April 1960 to 5 March 1961, and is 67 or higher for those born later. It is worth confirming your own state pension age before finalising any retirement plans, as the timetable affects when you can stop relying entirely on private income.
Auto-Enrolment: What You Are Currently Saving
If you are employed, aged between 22 and State Pension age and earn at least £10,000 a year, your employer must usually enrol you in a workplace pension under auto-enrolment rules introduced in 2012. Participation among eligible employees rose from 55 per cent in 2012 to 88 per cent in 2022, but the minimum contribution rates are a floor and do not guarantee an adequate retirement income.
The minimum contribution rates are:
| Contributor | Minimum contribution | On what? |
|---|---|---|
| Employee | 5% | Earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 (in most schemes) |
| Employer | 3% | Qualifying earnings (in most schemes) |
| Total | 8% | — |
On a £40,911 salary, qualifying earnings are approximately £34,671 (£40,911 minus the lower threshold of £6,240). Total 8% contribution: approximately £2,774/year or £231/month gross.
This minimum level of saving is unlikely to deliver a comfortable retirement on its own. As an illustration from our own arithmetic (a flat salary, contributions of £2,774 a year for 37 years from age 30 to 67, and 4% to 5% yearly growth after charges), the pot would come to roughly £227,000 to £282,000. Set against the Retirement Living Standards table above, that is more than the minimum standard needs but well short of the moderate one.See our pension contributions guide for a full breakdown by age and salary.
It is also worth understanding what “qualifying earnings” means: in most auto-enrolment schemes, contributions are calculated on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270. This means a portion of your salary, and your employer’s contribution, is excluded from the calculation. If you earn above £50,270, the part above that figure is not counted in most schemes, so saving more would mean paying extra into your workplace scheme or into a separate pension such as a SIPP.
How to Boost Your Pension Savings
1. Increase Contributions — Especially to Get Full Employer Match
Some employers pay more than the legal minimum, depending on their scheme rules, so it is worth asking what yours offers. An employer who pays up to 6% in total (instead of the 3% minimum) puts in twice the legal minimum. Before looking at any other strategy, find out exactly what your employer will match and contribute at least that amount.
2. Use Salary Sacrifice
If your employer offers salary sacrifice (also called salary exchange), your pension contributions come out of your salary before tax and National Insurance are worked out. In some cases that means you and your employer pay less of both. The effects:
- You save National Insurance (8% or 2% depending on your earnings band, if you earn enough to pay it) on top of the income tax relief you would get on pension contributions anyway
- Your employer saves their 15% Class 1 NI — some employers pass this saving on to you as an extra pension contribution
On a £500/month pension contribution, salary sacrifice saves a basic-rate taxpayer about £40/month in National Insurance (8%) compared with paying it in the usual way, on top of the £100/month income tax relief that applies either way. Over a decade, that difference compounds significantly. Higher-rate taxpayers pay National Insurance at 2% rather than 8% on earnings above £50,270, so the National Insurance saving on that slice is smaller.
3. Carry Forward Unused Annual Allowance
The annual pension allowance is £60,000 in 2026/27 (it can be lower, for example if you have flexibly accessed your pension or have a high income, and tax relief is limited to 100% of your earnings). Once you have used this year’s allowance, you might be able to carry forward any you did not use in the previous three tax years and make a larger one-off contribution. This is particularly useful if you receive a bonus or have come into money through an inheritance. Carry forward can be an effective way to close the gap quickly without committing to permanently higher contributions.
4. Consider a SIPP for Additional Flexibility
A Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) allows you to contribute in addition to your workplace pension (up to the annual allowance in total). SIPPs can offer a wider investment choice than workplace pensions, and many self-employed people use them. See our best SIPP providers guide if you are thinking of opening one.
5. Trace and Consolidate Lost Pensions
People can build up several workplace pensions over their working life, and old pensions from previous employers are easy to lose track of. Use the government’s Pension Tracing Service at gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details to find contact details for an old scheme once you know the employer or provider name. Once found, consider consolidating them into a single plan: this can make monitoring and managing your pension simpler, and may reduce the number of sets of charges you pay, though you should first check for exit fees or valuable benefits you would lose.
That said, consolidation is not always the right move. Some older defined benefit pensions give a guaranteed lifetime income that you would lose by moving to a SIPP or another defined contribution scheme. Always check what you would be giving up before transferring: our guide to transferring a workplace pension to a SIPP covers this in detail.
6. Plan How You Will Access Your Savings
Most people focus on how to accumulate a pension, but how you take the money out can change how much tax you pay, because the tax depends on the income you receive in a tax year. Many people with multiple pots will be able to take up to 25% of each as a tax-free lump sum, up to a limit of £268,275 across all their pensions (the Lump Sum Allowance). Doing this thoughtfully (for example, by phasing withdrawals across tax years rather than taking everything at once) can reduce the income tax you pay on pension withdrawals substantially.
Our guide to taking multiple pension lump sums covers exactly how this works: how the allowance is tracked across different pension providers, what happens when you go over the limit, and which strategies tend to be most tax-efficient depending on your situation. If you have separate pots and are unsure whether to take cash from each individually or move them first, this guide should be your first stop.
You may also want to read our guides on whether to take your 25% tax-free lump sum and the pension tax-free lump sum rules before making any decisions.
What the Gap Looks Like in Practice
The tables above show ONS median pots and salary-multiple targets. The cost of closing any gap rises as retirement gets closer, because there is less time for growth to do the work.
A gap is not irreversible. The median and mean figures also hide the spread within each age group, which is why the mean sits well above the median. The more useful question is always: what does your situation require, and what can you realistically do between now and retirement?
The earlier you act, the more compound growth does the heavy lifting. If you are approaching 50 and want a structured plan, our retirement planning at 50 guide and approaching retirement checklist set out the key decisions and deadlines.
Key Figures at a Glance
| Fact | Figure (2026/27) |
|---|---|
| Full new state pension | £12,548/year (£241.30/week) |
| State pension age | 66 for those born before 6 April 1960, rising to 67 between 2026 and 2028 for those born 6 April 1960 to 5 March 1961, and 67 for those born from 6 March 1961 |
| Annual pension allowance | £60,000 |
| Minimum auto-enrolment contribution | 8% of qualifying earnings (in most schemes) |
| ISA allowance (complement to pension) | £20,000/year |
| Lifetime allowance | Abolished from April 2024 |
| Lump Sum Allowance (tax-free cash limit) | £268,275 (usually the most across all your pensions) |
The lifetime allowance on pension savings was abolished in April 2024: there is now no upper limit on total pension savings, though the annual contribution allowance still applies. The Lump Sum Allowance of £268,275 is usually the most tax-free cash you can take across all your pensions, although a protected allowance can raise it.
Once you know how the averages compare to your own pot, the natural next question is whether your savings are on track for the retirement you want. See our Am I Saving Enough for Retirement? guide for salary-multiple benchmarks, worked examples, and catch-up strategies.
Related Guides
- Am I Saving Enough for Retirement?
- How Much Pension Do I Need to Retire UK?
- How Much Should I Have in My Pension at 30?
- How Much Should I Have in My Pension at 40?
- How Much Should I Have in My Pension at 50?
- How Much Should I Have in My Pension at 55?
- Retirement Planning at 40 UK
- Retirement Planning at 50 UK
- Approaching Retirement Financial Checklist
- Pension Contributions Guide — How Much Should You Save?
- Pension Annual Allowance Guide UK 2026/27
- Pension Annual Allowance Carry Forward — How to Use Unused Allowances
- Salary Sacrifice vs Direct Pension Contributions
- SIPP Guide UK — Self-Invested Personal Pension Explained
- Best SIPP Providers UK
- Transferring a Workplace Pension to a SIPP
- Pension Consolidation Guide UK
- Can I Take Multiple Pension Lump Sums?
- Should I Take My 25% Pension Lump Sum?
- Pension Tax-Free Lump Sum Guide
- Pension Lump Sum vs Drawdown
- Drawdown vs Annuity — Which Is Right for You?
- Pension Drawdown Guide UK
- State Pension Amount 2026/27
- State Pension Forecast — How to Check Yours Online
- NI Voluntary Contributions — Should I Buy Extra Years?
- ISA Allowance 2026/27
- Pension Planning Hub