Using this site in the United Kingdom

First, set the picker

Every page on this site has a country selector in the top bar. Setting it to United Kingdom does three things: it changes the currency symbol and number formatting, it loads the UK starting figures into the jurisdiction-sensitive input boxes, and it shows a short note on any calculator that works differently here.

What it does not do is change the arithmetic. There is one engine underneath all twenty-six calculators and it is the same for everybody. The country layer only sets defaults — and every one of those defaults stays editable, because a national average is a starting point rather than your situation. Your choice is remembered on your device and sent nowhere.

The translation layer

The calculators use deliberately generic language so that one set of tools works everywhere. Here is what each generic term means in the UK.

Two dates worth putting in your diary

Both of these move, and both catch people out.

State Pension age is 66, rising to 67 between 2026 and 2028. The legislated timetable then takes it to 68 between 2044 and 2046. The country preset on this site uses 67, which is the forward-looking figure — if you are reaching State Pension age before the change completes, edit the box down to 66 and check your own date with the government's checker. A year either way changes the answer on calculator 03 materially.

The earliest you can touch a private pension rises from 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028. If your plan involves stopping at 55 or 56 in the late 2020s, this is the single most important date on this page — it can move your access date by two years and turn a comfortable plan into a funding gap. Some older schemes carry a protected lower age; most do not. Check with your provider rather than assuming.

The State Pension, and what calculator 03 is really asking

The pension deferral calculator works differently in the UK from everywhere else, because the State Pension cannot be claimed early. There is no reduced-early-payment option to weigh up. That is why the preset sets the earliest and normal ages to the same number and the early-reduction rate to zero.

What is left is the deferral question, and it is a real one. Deferring adds 1% for every nine weeks you wait, which works out at roughly 5.8% a year, with no upper limit on how long you can defer — the calculator uses 75 as a practical stopping point rather than a legal one. That rate is worth comparing against what the same money would do invested, which is exactly what the calculator does.

Before you run it: get your own State Pension forecast. It is free, it takes a few minutes on GOV.UK, and it tells you your actual entitlement based on your National Insurance record rather than the headline maximum. People are wrong about this figure in both directions surprisingly often, and it is the foundation of everything else.

The tax-free lump sum, and why calculator 02 is pessimistic here

Up to 25% of a pension can normally be taken tax-free, capped at £268,275. The withdrawal-order comparison in calculator 02 applies a single flat rate to the whole pension pot and knows nothing about that allowance.

The direction of the error matters more than its size: the calculator overstates the tax cost of drawing on a pension in the UK, which makes pension withdrawals look worse than they are relative to ISA withdrawals. If the ordering comparison comes out close, the real answer probably tilts further towards the pension than the screen suggests.

The same is true of allowances generally. The personal allowance and the annual capital gains exemption are both ignored, which again overstates tax on modest incomes and small gains.

Care costs, and which nation you live in

The £23,250 figure in calculator 07 is the upper capital limit for the means test in England. Below it you get some help; above it you self-fund. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own limits, and Scotland's free personal and nursing care arrangements make the picture different again.

The cost figure loaded by the picker is an average self-funder residential fee. Nursing care runs considerably higher, and regional variation within England alone is large. This is the input most worth replacing with a real local quote — two or three phone calls to homes in your area will give you a far better number than any national average.

What this site deliberately does not model here

This is the important section, and it is deliberately blunt. The calculators contain no tax logic and no means-testing logic of any kind — not for the UK, not for anywhere. Where a page asks for a tax rate, it is a number you type in and the calculator multiplies by it. That design decision means the site cannot be wrong about the law, because it never states any; but it also means the following are entirely absent from every answer you will get:

• Income tax and the personal allowance. A single flat rate stands in for a banded system.
• The 25% tax-free pension lump sum, which means the site overstates the tax cost of drawing a pension.
• The annual capital gains exemption and dividend allowance.
• Means-tested benefits, Pension Credit in particular, which can be worth more than the withdrawal decision that costs you eligibility.
• The residence nil-rate band and transfers between spouses, both of which can raise the effective inheritance tax threshold well above the £325,000 the calculator uses.
• Scottish income tax rates, which differ from the rest of the UK, and the devolved care arrangements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• The care cost cap and the means-test floor, and any changes to them.

None of these are oversights — they are the price of one honest engine that works in four countries rather than four half-modelled ones. But they do mean that on any decision turning on tax or on Pension Credit, the calculators here tell you the shape of the answer and not the size of it.

The the UK defaults, and how far to trust them

These are the figures the picker loads. Confidence is recorded honestly: verified means checked against a current published source, indicative means a reasonable planning figure that varies enormously and should be replaced with yours, and n/a means the concept does not apply here.

Every one of these is audited in full, with the primary source and the date it was checked, in the tax assumptions audit. If a number here looks wrong to you, that is the document to check — and the one to tell us about.

Where to check the official figures

Nothing on this site should be the last word on a the UK rule. These are the primary sources:

• GOV.UK — check your State Pension age, and get your personal State Pension forecast. Do this one first.
• GOV.UK — how you can take your pension and the lump sum allowance.
• GOV.UK — capital gains tax rates.
• MoneyHelper, the government-backed free guidance service, for pensions and care. Pension Wise offers free appointments from 50.
• Your local authority for the care means test where you live, which is the only figure that actually applies to you.

Where to start

Start with will your money outlive you? using a realistic State Pension figure from your forecast. Then pension deferral, because the deferral rate is genuinely competitive with investment returns and most people never compare the two. If you are planning to stop before 57, check the April 2028 access change above before anything else.

If you have not used the site before, start here works out which calculators are worth your time, the numbers you'll need covers gathering your figures, and the plain-English list defines every term the site uses.