Members Life events

We all have life events – things that change our lives and our financial plans. We’ve set out a range of life events here to help you think about how your plans for pension saving could change.

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Changes at work

Think about how work changes affect the amount you pay in to your now:pensions account and what this means for your future. For example: you go part time, working three days a week instead of five. If you don't do anything, you've just cut your pension saving by 40%. You can use our retirement planner to help you decide whether to pay more, work for longer or accept you'll have less money when you retire. Log in to now:u and go to the retirement planner.

Pension retirement planner
Young woman using a laptop while working from home Young woman using a laptop while working from home

Changes to family and relationships

Things like getting married or divorced, having a child and taking parental leave can all affect your pension saving. They can also affect who you want to pass your money on to. 

One parent working 

For example: your partner gave up work to care for your child. You want to make sure they’re taken care of. So you might want to pay more in to build up a higher amount of pension savings.  

Parental leave 

If you go on parental leave, ask your workplace what options they have to support you. And check out MoneyHelper’s Becoming a parent guide.

Read the guide

Planning ahead

You need to think about how these changes affect your pension saving - and how much you'll need when you retire. You might want to think about paying more, to build up more pension savings. Use our retirement planner to help you decide.

Pension retirement planner
Young woman traveling by train and using phone Young woman traveling by train and using phone

Sharing pensions in a divorce

If you get divorced or dissolve a civil partnership, your pension savings must be treated as part of the divorce settlement. If your former partner has pension benefits, these must also be taken into account. This doesn’t include the State Pension. Check out MoneyHelper’s Divorce and separation guide. 

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Sharing pensions in a divorce

Ask for a valuation of your savings

If you’re getting a divorce or dissolving a civil partnership, it’s a good idea to ask for a valuation of your pension savings as soon as possible. Log in to now:u and go to Life events > Divorce. Download the form, fill it in and send it back to us.

If you’re in Scotland, you’ll need the Scotland-specific form. Pensions are treated differently in Scottish law.

You only need to fill in Section A of the form, including your solicitor’s address. Then you can scan and send it to us.

Once we’ve got your form we’ll fill in the rest. Then we’ll send it to your solicitor to be used in your legal proceedings.

Health changes

If you’re too ill to work you may be able to take money out of your now:pensions account – even if you haven’t yet reached the minimum age for taking your pension savings (currently 55).

Ill health

A qualified medical practitioner – usually your GP – has certified you are medically incapable of doing your current job, now and in the future. This can be because of injury, sickness, disease or disability. It can be physical or mental.

Serious ill health

A qualified medical practitioner – usually your GP – has confirmed your life expectancy is less than 12 months. 

This is a difficult situation to be in. So it’s good to understand what you can do with your pension savings.  

Ill health - understand what you can do

You’ll need a medical practitioner (normally your GP) to certify that you’re incapable of carrying out your job.

If your medical practitioner confirms your life expectancy is less than one year, you may be able to take all your benefits at once.

If you’re under 75 

You can take all your pension savings as cash straight away. You can do this even if you’re younger than the minimum age for taking pension savings. This is currently 55 and is due to go up to 57 in 2028.  

The cash will be tax free – you won’t pay any income tax on it.  

If you’re over 75 

You can still take all your pension savings as cash. If you’ve already started taking your pension savings as retirement income, you can take any savings you’ve got left as cash straight away.  

But, you’ll be liable to pay income tax on the cash.   

This is because the way pensions are taxed changes at age 75. How much tax you pay will depend on what other income you get in that tax year. We’ll take the tax off before we pay the money to you.  

What you need to do

Log in to now:u, go to Life events and Health changes – What can you do.  Choose either Ill health or Serious ill health and download the form.

Fill in Part 1 of the form. Get your medical practitioner to fill in Part 2. Then send it to the address on the form.

Once we’ve received your form, we’ll help you through the process and get your benefits paid.

Frequently asked questions

See all support for members

Yes. The more you save for your retirement, the more income you could have when you take your retirement benefits.

How to increase the amount you pay in

Log in to now:u and go to Change your payments in > Pay in more. 

Choose an extra amount to pay each time you get paid. This must be a percentage of your salary as a whole number – for example, 2%. 

If you want to reduce your payments in, reduce or remove the extra amount you pay. 

Choose Confirm. Your workplace can tell you when the changed payments will start going in to your now:pensions account.  

Remember the tax relief

If you’re a taxpayer, you don’t pay tax on all or a lot of the money that goes into your pension savings. Instead, the tax you would have paid goes into your pension savings. This is called tax relief.  

If you wanted to, you could pay up to the whole of your salary into your pension in a tax year (6th April to 5th April) and you’d still get tax relief, as long as the total going into your pension savings, from you and your workplace does not exceed the annual allowance. This applies to all the pension schemes you’re actively saving into, including now:pensions and any personal pensions you have.

If you’re self-employed, you can claim tax relief via your annual self-assessment tax return.

The annual allowance is currently £60,000 a year.

If you exceed your annual allowance limit, you would usually have to pay tax on the excess. However, you may be able to carry forward any unused annual allowance from the previous 3 tax years, which could reduce the tax charge.

The annual allowance could reduce to £10,000 a year if you start taking your money out of now:pensions but also carry on paying in to your pension savings. This reduced annual allowance is called the money purchase annual allowance.

With now:u, you can plan your retirement whenever you want. now:u always shows the projected value of your pension savings at your planned retirement age.  

Log in to now:u and go to Plan your retirement. You can play around with our retirement planner to see how paying more in to your pension savings or changing your planned retirement age changes the projected value of your pension savings.  

You can also use the planner to see how long your money is likely to last after you retire.  

If you get divorced or dissolve a civil partnership, your pension savings must be treated as part of the divorce settlement. If your former partner has pension benefits, these must also be taken into account.

There are various ways to share your assets, including your pension savings, in a divorce. One way to share pension savings is a ‘pension sharing order’ which splits the savings between you and your former partner.

Please get in touch if you’re divorcing or dissolving a civil partnership, so we can send you the information you need.

Log in to now:u and go to Life events – Divorce where you can download a form.

Or, contact us.

Yes. You need to be suffering from ‘serious ill health’ which means a qualified medical practitioner – usually your GP – has confirmed your life expectancy is less than 12 months. 

If you’re under 75 

You can take all your pension savings as cash straight away, regardless of your age.   

The cash will be tax free – you won’t pay any income tax on it.  

If you’re over 75 

You can still take all your pension savings as cash. If you’ve already started taking your pension savings as retirement income, you can take any savings you’ve got left as cash straight away.  

But, you’ll be liable to pay income tax on the cash.   

This is because the way pensions are taxed changes at age 75. How much tax you pay will depend on what other income you get in that tax year. We’ll take tax off before we pay the money to you.