Reference · checked 28 October 2026
The UK rules the course actually teaches
This page is the rate card behind the lessons. It is not a forecast of your pension and it is not advice. Figures are the published 2026/27 amounts. The Autumn Budget falls on the day this page was checked. If a rate moves, enrolled learners receive a correction note and this page is updated.
State Pension and Pension Credit, weekly
| Published amount |
2026/27 |
| Full new State Pension | £241.30 |
| Full basic State Pension | £184.90 |
| Pension Credit standard minimum guarantee, single | £238.00 |
| Pension Credit standard minimum guarantee, couple | £363.25 |
£241.30 a week is about £12,547.60 a year. Set beside a personal allowance of £12,570, the full new State Pension on its own sits just under the line in 2026/27. Other taxable income changes that picture. The course spends a whole module on it.
Auto-enrolment, 2026/27
| Threshold or rate |
Amount |
What the lesson uses it for |
| Earnings trigger |
£10,000 |
Who must be put into a workplace scheme |
| Qualifying earnings band |
£6,240 to £50,270 |
The slice of pay the minimum percentage applies to |
| Minimum total contribution |
8% |
Legal floor, not a savings target |
| Employer minimum |
3% |
The part you lose if you opt out |
| Your minimum, including tax relief |
5% |
Only if the employer pays just the 3% |
Worked sum from the course: salary £28,000, qualifying earnings £21,760, minimum total £1,740.80, of which the employer minimum is £652.80. Some employers pay more than 3%, or use pensionable pay instead of qualifying earnings. The worksheet has a row for that, because the legal minimum is not everyone’s scheme.
Contribution ceilings
- Annual allowance: £60,000 in 2026/27.
- Taper: threshold income £200,000, adjusted income £260,000, allowance can fall to £10,000.
- Carry forward: up to three earlier years of unused allowance, if you were in a registered scheme.
- Money purchase annual allowance: £10,000 after you flexibly access defined contribution savings.
- Lump sum allowance: £268,275. Lump sum and death benefit allowance: £1,073,100. Protection can change your own numbers. The lifetime allowance itself is gone.
Taking an income
- Normal minimum pension age is 55, rising to 57 on 6 April 2028, unless your scheme has a protected age.
- The usual routes are an annuity, flexi-access drawdown, and UFPLS.
- Tax-free lump sums are capped by the lump sum allowance. Do not assume a fresh 25% of every pot.
- The rest is taxed as pension income. A first payment often uses an emergency code.
- Defined benefit transfers with safeguarded benefits over £30,000 need regulated advice. That advice is not this course.
Scotland is not a footnote
Pension tax rules are UK-wide. Income tax on pension income is not. If you are a Scottish taxpayer, Scottish bands apply to that income. Savings interest and dividends still follow the UK rates. Relief at source on a personal pension adds basic-rate relief in the pot; higher Scottish rates may need a separate claim. The lessons use the 2026/27 Scottish rate card from Revenue Scotland rather than a copied list that will go stale on this page.
Care is devolved. Free personal care and free nursing care in Scotland, for people assessed as needing them, do not pay the accommodation charge in a care home, and they are not England’s means test. Module 8 sends you to mygov.scot for the current test, and it refuses to guess a care-home fee.
Where to check a figure yourself
