Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP)

Currently, there’s no limit on how much you can pay into your pension, however you won’t receive tax relief on anything over £60,000 or 100% of your salary, whichever is lower. The £60,000 limit includes all payments, including the government top up and employer contributions – so it is actually £48,000 of your contributions, plus £12,000 tax relief.

If you go over this limit you won’t receive tax relief and will have to pay an annual allowance charge which will be added to the rest of your yearly taxable income. If your income is less than £3,600 a year, you will only be able to contribute up to £2,880.

You can access your pension when you turn 55 (rising to 57 in 2028). Subject to current pension rules, you'll be able to withdraw 25% of the total amount tax-free, with the rest being taxed based on your individual circumstances. However, you don’t have to take any of your pension if you don’t want to. If you’re still working, for example, you can leave the money in your pension – and continue to contribute – until you retire.

The way you take your money out of your pension (a process known as moving your pension into drawdown), will vary depending on the type of pension you have.

If you have a defined benefit pension, you will receive a specific income for life, which should increase every year. If you have a defined contribution scheme, then you’ll be able to choose how you want to withdraw your funds using one of the following methods:

• Take your whole pension in one go as a lump sum.
• Withdraw money whenever you need it.
• Receive a regular income.

One of the easiest ways to trace old pensions is to use the government’s online Pension Tracing Service.
To use this service, you’ll need either the name of an employer or pension provider, as it can’t tell you whether you actually have a pension, or its value.

Once you’ve agreed to the service’s declaration, it’s then just a matter of answering a few simple 'yes’ or ‘no’ questions, including:

• Are you looking for an NHS, civil service, teacher or armed services pension?
• What type of pension are you looking for?
• Do you know the name of the employer, who set up your workplace pension?
• Do you know the name of your workplace pension scheme?

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Wealthify automatically adds the 25% top up when you make a personal contribution to your pension and only if you ticked the box to state your eligibility for tax relief when you opened the SIPP. So, if you personally pay in £800, the government adds another £200, making the total £1000. However, if you’re a higher-rate taxpayer, you may be entitled to more, in which case you will need to contact HRMC to be able to access higher-rate tax relief. This will need to be submitted on your annual tax return.

When you open a SIPP with Wealthify, you must tick the box to say you are eligible for the tax top-up. We then automatically add the 25% top up to your pension when you make personal contributions. This means we do all the work for you and you don’t need to claim anything yourself. However, if you’re a higher-rate taxpayer, you’ll need to contact HMRC for tax relief at the higher rate.

You can transfer in most types of pensions, although there are exceptions. For example, the government doesn’t allow the transfer of a public service pension. Similarly, if your pension has defined benefits – such as guaranteed annuity rates or a final salary promise – then we won’t be able to accept this, so please check before requesting a transfer.  We also cannot accept a transfer if you’re already taking an income from it.

That’s definitely something you can do! We understand that appetite for risk changes, so if you want to change your investment style, just let our customer care team know.

No, unfortunately, we’re not able to accept pensions that are already in payment or if you’ve already taken income from.

Yes, you can. There are no limitations in place that would stop you from paying into your pension as well as other investment types, like our investment ISAs or General Investment Accounts (GIAs).

In the majority of cases, no. We can begin a pension transfer on your behalf without you needing to do anything. However, things happen, and if your old provider objects or needs further confirmation, then we’ll get in touch to let you know what’s needed.

We don’t charge you anything to transfer, but your old provider may charge exit fees or transfer fees, so you may want to check this with them before you go ahead.

This will depend on the type of pension transfer and who your previous providers were. In some cases, providers may require a physical signature, if so, we’ll send you a form to sign. However, most providers are happy with a digital signature, so there’s a chance that you may not need to physically sign anything.

As many as you want – whether that’s one or twenty – there’s no limit on how many pensions you can transfer into Wealthify.

This can differ from provider to provider, but the majority of pension transfers take 30 days. The exceptions are if there are issues locating your pension, or if we have to manually transfer your pension, then it could take up to 12 weeks. If we do find that we need more details from you to process a transfer, our team will get in touch to let you know what’s needed.

If you die before 75 anything remaining in your drawdown fund is passed on to your beneficiary as a tax-free lump sum, or they can continue to receive the income tax-free through drawdown. These payments must begin to be made within two years, or they become taxable at the beneficiary's highest rate. If you die aged 75 or above anything passed on or remaining in your drawdown fund will be taxed at the beneficiary's highest tax rate if taken as an income or lump sum.

Yes, you can! A personal pension is great for sole-traders, freelancers, contractors, seasonal staff, directors in limited companies and more. Thanks to the flexibility of contributions, you can add to it when it suits you and change or pause your payments at any time using our app or online dashboard.

Did we mention that you could also benefit from an additional 25% top up thanks to tax relief? That means that every £800 you add is worth £1000. You can benefit from this up to £48,000 (which becomes £60,000 with £12,000 tax relief) or 100% of your earnings, whichever is lower.

Take control of your future finances by starting a Self-Invested Personal Pension today.