Adding money to your pension
Make the most of tax-free investment growth with Smart Pension.
Small top-ups today could help tomorrow
Add money to your pension whenever it suits you and make a difference to your retirement savings over time.
Save today, grow tomorrow
You can continue saving into your pension while starting to withdraw money, giving you more flexibility as life changes.
Built-in planning tools
Plan for your future at every stage and explore your retirement options directly in your account.
Everything in one account
No new setup, extra paper or logins, just one familiar place to manage your retirement savings.
Grow your pension savings
Make one-off payments or set up regular contributions to grow your pension savings with Smart Pension.
Safe and secure
Online verification, all from your phone.
Tax relief included
Government tax relief is claimed automatically where eligible.
Plan and grow your pension savings
When you add money to your pension, you may receive tax relief from the government. This increases the value of your contribution and grows your pension savings.
What is compounding?
Discover what compounding is and how it boosts your pension savings..
Continuing the growth
Even if employer contributions have stopped, your Smart Pension savings stay invested and still have the potential to grow over time, and you can keep contributing too.
Don’t forget to check if you could be missing out on pension contributions with another employer. It’s your pension, your way.
Make one-off or regular payments whenever it suits you.
Combine old pensions to make your savings easier to manage and keep them working together.
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FAQs
You can start with a minimum of £100 for a one-off top-up, or as little as £10 for regular contributions. There’s no maximum amount you can pay in, but there is a daily limit of £25,000 when paying online.
For tax relief, you can usually contribute up to 100% of your earnings or £60,000 a year, and you may be able to carry forward unused allowance from the past three years.
Yes, you can add money as often as you like, whenever it works for you. Each payment will be applied securely to your pension, and you’ll still benefit from tax relief up to your annual allowance.
With Smart Pension, you can also set up regular personal contributions to keep building your future savings, even after you leave your employer.
All money added to your pension is transferred safely and securely using our paper-free payment system.
Once you’ve made a one-off contribution, it generally cannot be refunded. However, if you believe something has gone wrong, such as entering the wrong amount, contact us as soon as possible so we can look into it.
If you’d like to use your employer’s payroll or exchange a bonus for a pension contribution, speak to your payroll team first. Contributions made this way benefit from tax relief automatically. Remember, you may need to act before 5 April if you want them to count in the current tax year.
If you need guidance on contribution allowances, rules, or how much you can or should contribute, speak to your usual tax adviser. Alternatively, you can contact a retirement adviser. If you don’t have one, you can find help using MoneyHelper’s Find a Retirement Adviser guidance.
If you can’t find the answer to your question, you can view our top FAQs about making a one-off pension contribution.
