Can I pay more into my pension?

Whatever your position, you need to review your pension regularly to make sure it will give you the income you want when you retire.

If you want to increase your pension (for example, if you become better off), your employer must make arrangements for you to pay extra contributions. These are called additional voluntary contributions (AVCs). You can also pay AVCs to another scheme provider. These are called free-standing AVCs or FSAVCs. The charges for FSAVCs are often higher than paying AVCs through your own occupational scheme. There are limits to the amount of tax relief you can have on pension contributions. Scheme providers must check that your tax relief does not go over these limits before they accept AVCs or FSAVCs.

If you are a member of an occupational pension scheme, current tax rules mean that you may be able to use a stakeholder pension or a personal pension (or both) to build up extra pension. You should check with your occupational pension scheme to find out if you can do this. You can also get further information from the Inland Revenue leaflet Personal Pension Schemes (including Stakeholder Pension Schemes) – A guide for members of tax-approved schemes (IR3). Click here for details about how you can get a copy of this leaflet.