• Basic pension system
• When can I retire?
• State pension
• Company pension
• Private pension
• Self invested personal pension
• Planning a retirement
• State second pension
• Pension in case of divorce
• Stakeholder pension

A pension system is designed to prevent poverty of people who are in old age or got too old the go on with their profession and retire. The payments for the system are usually made through a national system of pension contributions carried out either by the state or a seperate state related organization created for this purpose. The contributions are deducted from a person’s income and as the number of working years and working hours increase the amount of money payed as pension increase as well.

The United Kingdom has a three main types of pension contributions, a basic pension contributions, an additional pension and a guarentee of pension each for a different situation of a person after retirement. According to the current legislation the number of working years required to be entitled for a state pension is 44 for men and 39 for women with a retirement made from the age of 65 for men and 60 for women.

An additional pension is available for those whose income is below the so called Low Earnings Threshold (LET), which amount is determined as a maximum in order to reach the level of the LET and give extra support for the needy.