How does Rest Less make money
We make money through advertising and commission from affiliate links, which enable us to offer Rest Less as a free service to our users. The content on this page may use affiliate links, which track traffic from our website to a third party provider and enable us to receive a commission or payment from any traffic we refer.
* Affiliate links on this page have an * next to them. We place enormous importance on our editorial independence and the integrity of our content which means that we will never change how we write about something as a result of an affiliate link.
The new year is always a good time to have a financial reset, but remember to include your pensions when thinking about how your money could be working harder for you.
Given that retirement for those of us in our fifties might still be a few years away, it can be tempting to push pensions to one side in order to focus on more pressing priorities. However, putting retirement planning first now should mean a more comfortable future, or even allow you to stop work earlier if you want to.
Here’s our rundown of six pension resolutions for 2026 that you can’t afford not to make.
Advertisement
If you’re considering seeking professional financial advice on the options available to you, we’ve partnered with nationwide Chartered independent advice firm Fidelius to offer Rest Less members a free initial consultation with a qualified financial adviser. There’s no obligation, however if the adviser feels you’d benefit from paid financial advice, they’ll talk you through how that works and the charges involved.
Fidelius are rated 4.7 out of 5 from over 2,600 reviews on VouchedFor, the review site for financial advisers.
1) Claim tax relief
If you’re a higher or additional rate taxpayer paying into what’s known as a ‘relief at source’ pension, you’ll only get basic-rate tax relief automatically. To receive the rest, you need to claim it yourself.
Most private pensions and some workplace schemes work this way. You pay 80% of your contribution from your take-home pay, and the pension provider claims the remaining 20% from HMRC. Any extra tax relief you’re entitled to must be reclaimed by you, usually through an online self-assessment tax return. Find out more in our article Are you missing out on thousands in pension tax relief?
However, not everyone will need to reclaim higher or additional rate tax relief. Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, explained: “If your pension is set up as a net pay arrangement, where your pension contribution is deducted from your salary before income tax is paid, then your scheme claims back tax relief at your marginal rate of income tax. This means you don’t need to do anything further. Similarly, if your pension is set up as a salary sacrifice arrangement, you won’t need to reclaim extra relief.
“If you’ve missed claiming this relief in the past, then you can backdate claims for the past four tax years. You will need to keep records of your contributions for these periods in case HMRC asks for them.”
2) Boost your contributions by cutting out unnecessary expenditure
When was the last time you sat down and went through your bank statements to check whether you’re paying for services and subscriptions you no longer use?
Cancelling just a few direct debits and redirecting your money into your pension could make a significant difference to the amount you end up with at retirement, even if you’ve only got a few years to go before you plan to stop work.
According to analysis by Standard Life, someone who began working at age 22 with a salary of £25,000 and paid the minimum monthly auto-enrolment contributions (5% employee, 3% employer) could have built a total retirement fund of £210,000 by the age of 68. However, if they’d redirected £39 of unused monthly direct debits into their pension – roughly the equivalent of leading streaming services at £18.99 and £14.99 today – they could have increased their projected fund to £247,000, £37,000 more in today’s prices.
Mike Ambery, Retirement Savings Director at Standard Life, says: “Unused direct debits have a habit of quietly draining our bank accounts in the background. The new year is often a time people focus on their physical health, but it’s also the perfect moment to think about your financial wellbeing too.
“Redirecting just a few of those forgotten payments into your pension could make a meaningful positive impact to your financial future. However, it is important to double-check terms and conditions of cancelling any direct debits or subscriptions to avoid potential penalties or impact on your credit scores.”
Find out more ways to give your pension contributions a boost in our article 11 simple ways to top up your pension in 2026.
3) Locate any missing pensions
If you’ve worked for a number of employers over the years, or you’ve moved house frequently and think you might have lost track of some of your pension paperwork, it’s well worth taking a bit of time to check whether you have any missing pensions.
Mike Ambery said, “If you want to find out if you have any old pension plans, there are a few routes available to help. “Pension providers should send you a statement every year. This includes key information, like the value of your plan and how much you could potentially get from it in retirement, so a good place to start is checking for any old paperwork that might have the name of your previous employer or details of the scheme’s administrator or provider.
“For those who are struggling to find old paperwork, don’t worry, this isn’t your only option. If you had a pension plan set up for you through a job, you can contact your previous employers directly for details of their scheme. And if your employer provided access to a personal or stakeholder scheme, they’ll be able to give you information about the pension provider.
“The government’s free Pension Tracing Service is a good way to get up-to-date contact details for old employers and pension providers. If you have your National Insurance number and dates of your previous employment, you can contact your employers and providers to find out everything about your old plans.”
Learn more about locating forgotten pensions in our guide Tracing lost pensions – How to find my old pensions.
4) Consider whether consolidation is right for you
Once you’ve tracked down all your pensions, it’s worth thinking about whether consolidating them into one plan might make your savings easier to manage. Benefits of consolidation may include that your new plan might have lower charges or a wider choice of investment options.
However, there may be downsides, such as exit penalties to leave your existing plan, or the risk that you inadvertently give up valuable guarantees by moving to a different provider. Find out more about the pros and cons of pension consolidation in our guide Could combining your pensions save you money?
Emma Sterland, Chief Financial Planning Director at wealth management firm Evelyn Partners, said: “It’s possible to do this yourself but where you’re looking at larger sums this is really an area where advice can pay dividends, both around whether and how to consolidate and how to make your investments work harder in the future.
“For defined benefit pensions worth over £30,000, advice is in any case mandatory before they are transferred or cashed in, but even money-purchase schemes can have various rules and benefits attached that an adviser will spot.
“If you don’t take advice, then check that you are happy with how your pension savings are invested, and watch out especially for any lifestyling or target-date funds that your pension could be saved into, which might no longer be fit for purpose.”
Pension lifestyling is essentially when your savings are automatically moved into lower-risk investments as you approach retirement to help reduce the risk of your fund plummeting in value just before you need it. You can find out more about how it works in our guide What is pension lifestyling?
5) Know when you can access your pensions
It might seem obvious, but many people over 50 are unclear about when they can actually access their pension savings. A common assumption is that ‘retirement age’ automatically means State Pension age, but that isn’t always the case.
Most private and workplace pensions allow you to start taking money from the age of 55, but this is rising to 57 in 2028. That makes 2026 a key year to check your pension scheme’s rules, particularly if you’re considering early retirement.
It’s also worth remembering that different pensions may have different rules. For example, a defined benefit scheme might let you take a smaller pension earlier, whereas a personal or stakeholder pension might be more flexible, but could also reduce your total pot if you start drawing it too soon.
A simple first step is to check the key dates in your latest pension statements or contact your provider directly. You can learn more about when you might be able to access your pension, and how the point at which you take it can affect your retirement income in our article When can I retire?
6) Plan your retirement strategy
Although many of us have a vague idea of when we want to stop work, few people have a concrete plan in place as to when they will be able to afford to retire and how they’ll fund their retirement.
Recent research carried out by retirement specialists Just Group found that only 6% of Gen X workers (born between 1965-1983) had a written plan for retirement while 13% said they had a plan but not in writing. For working Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964) only 7% had a written plan and a further 22% said they had a plan but not in writing.
Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group, said: “The most obvious issue for these groups is that time is running out for them to put money into pensions and other investments for retirement, but that assumes they can continue to work until State Pension age or later. For people who are forced out of work early, perhaps due to illness or redundancy, they may find their retirements undermined before they even begin.”
If you do find yourself having to retire early, it’s worth exploring whether you might be eligible for any financial support. Find out more in our article Benefits for over 50s in the UK – what you could be entitled to. If you’re struggling to come up with a retirement plan, it’s worth making use of some of the free resources that might be available to you.
Mr Lowe said: “Services such as the government’s free online ‘Midlife MOT’ are available to help people gauge their progress in terms of savings, pensions, debt as well as work and health. And for those considering accessing a defined contribution pension there is also the free, independent and impartial Pension Wise service.
“Many pension schemes offer ‘retirement readiness’ calculators or sophisticated planning services that help members envisage their future and how to achieve it. A regulated adviser can also help you set your objectives and recommend ways to achieve them, providing a written plan that is reviewed regularly to ensure it remains on track.”
Advertisement
If you’re considering seeking professional financial advice on the options available to you, we’ve partnered with nationwide Chartered independent advice firm Fidelius to offer Rest Less members a free initial consultation with a qualified financial adviser. There’s no obligation, however if the adviser feels you’d benefit from paid financial advice, they’ll talk you through how that works and the charges involved.
Fidelius are rated 4.7 out of 5 from over 2,600 reviews on VouchedFor, the review site for financial advisers.
Join the discussion
Read our full commenting terms and guidelines