Your pay. Enter roughly what you earned at the time. Each year's contributions are
brought up to today's prices using UK inflation (ONS CPI from 1989; World Bank UK consumer price
series before that), so every figure is in today's money.
Workplace pots (DC). If you don't enter percentages: before auto-enrolment (pre-2012)
we use what members of private-sector workplace DC schemes typically paid — 2.8% from you and
6.6% from your employer (ONS Occupational Pension Schemes Survey 2011). From October 2012 we use the
auto-enrolment minimums on qualifying earnings: 2% in total to April 2018, 5% to April 2019 and 8%
since. If you do enter percentages, they apply to your whole salary, and your share is grossed up for
20% basic-rate tax relief if you tick that box.
Length of service. The year you left minus the year you joined (a job started and
finished in the same year counts as half a year).
Charges. 0.75% a year for auto-enrolment default funds from April 2015, 1.0% for the
stakeholder era 2001–2015, 1.5% for personal pensions before that, applied every year to the pot.
Growth. Low 3%, Mid 5% and High 7% a year above inflation, before charges. The total
uses the Mid figure. An illustrative line based on past UK share returns is also drawn; real funds
will have differed.
Final salary and career average (DB). Annual pension = accrual rate × years of
service × salary (your pay when you left; for career average schemes this is a simplification).
It is increased in line with inflation since you left, within the legal caps for deferred pensions
(5% a year for service before April 2009, 2.5% after). It is normally paid from the scheme's pension
age. To give one total we also show a rough transfer value of 20× the annual pension plus any
automatic lump sum; real transfer values vary a lot, so ask the scheme for a formal one.
This is an estimate, not financial advice. A precise figure can only come from the
scheme itself. You can look up a scheme's contact details free via the government's
Pension Tracing Service
and write to the provider yourself, or have our team run the whole search, contact each provider and
chase the replies for you.