It is important to understand how many pensions you have saved into and how much each is worth, in terms of both the amount saved and the potential amount of income they can generate.
You may have saved into a variety of pensions over your career - through your employer, your own business or by setting up a personal pension. You are also entitled to a state pension.
Pensions fall into the following main categories:
State pension - your National Insurance contributions pay for your state pension. Find out more.
Personal pension - usually a pension which you have saved into yourself, or sometimes your employer may have contributed too.
Occupational pension - a pension which is run by your employer. Usually both you and your employer have contributed monthly amounts to this pension.
Look carefully back over your working life checking for any missing or lost pensions, so that you know exactly how much you have saved when it comes to retirement. You can write to past pension providers if you have lost the paperwork but know who you had your pension with. Failing that, there is the Pensions Tracing Service which can help find lost pensions (see useful links below).
Chart shows average pension fund measured against the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Useful links Pension and retirement planning
Pensions Tracing Service
Department for Work & Pensions