Paying into a pension as a business owner can sometimes be an afterthought. After all, you may be preoccupied running your business or getting your next side hustle off the ground. It’s a fact well evidenced, with only 16% of UK self-employed workers paying into a pension. At PensionBee, we care about your journey to retirement, whether you work full-time or run your own business.
You might already be saving for life after you finish working, or maybe you’re yet to start paying into a self-employed pension. Here are three PensionBee features that can help you save for retirement, whatever stage you’re at.
Flexible contributions - saving that suits you
With an income that likely varies month-to-month, saving for retirement can be a challenge. In your PensionBee account (your ‘BeeHive’), you can easily set up flexible contributions. With a PensionBee self-employed pension, there’s no minimum amount. You can add whatever you want, whenever you want, to your pension. Whether that’s £20 or £200, it’s up to you.
Unlike those enrolled in a workplace pension scheme who benefit from Auto-Enrolment, self-employed workers have to keep on top of arranging and paying into a pension themselves. With our self-employed pension, you can easily set up a monthly contribution to ensure you’re always growing your pension. Or if you hit a period of lower income, you could pause your contributions and restart them later. However your business income may change, PensionBee’s flexible contributions put you in control of saving in a way that suits you.
If you’re the director of a limited company, you can make both personal and employer contributions into your PensionBee pension.
Learn more about contributing from a limited company.
Pension Tax Relief Calculator - maximise your self-employed contributions
Receiving tax relief is one of the biggest benefits of paying into a pension. For every contribution you make, the government will usually top it up in the form of tax relief, if you’re eligible. As a self-employed saver with a less predictable income, the added government contributions could be especially important in helping to save towards retirement.
Usually, basic rate taxpayers get a 25% tax top up; meaning HMRC adds £25 for every £100 you pay into your pension, making it £125. For 2025/26, the tax-free annual contribution limit is 100% of your salary or up to £60,000 (whichever is lower). This includes both contributions paid by you and your employer.
Using the PensionBee Pension Tax Relief Calculator
Our Pension Tax Relief Calculator will help you see how much extra you could have added to your pension on contributions you intend to make. For example, if you entered into the calculator a gross annual contribution of £5,000, it’ll show you how much of that amount would be made up of government contributions. Assuming you’re a basic rate taxpayer, you’d only need to contribute £4,000 as HMRC will add a 25% tax top up of £1,000, if eligible.
Self-employed saver benefits of the Pension Tax Relief Calculator
Gaining a better insight into how much tax relief you could receive can help you plan your contributions and avoid under- or over-saving. You could increase or decrease your contributions relative to any changes in income. For example, adding larger contributions in some months could help make up for smaller contributions in other months but still keep you on track to reach your intended annual contribution.
Pension Calculator - a clearer picture of your retirement income after you stop working for yourself
Many people are unsure of how much their pension could be worth or how long it could last in retirement. Our Pension Calculator is designed to help you answer both of those questions.
Using the PensionBee Pension Calculator
To use our Pension Calculator as a self-employed saver, set the ‘Employer monthly contribution’ slider to £0 and adjust the others. For example, add the value of any other pension pots you may have, perhaps you were employed in the past; if so, factor in the value of any workplace pensions you held when adjusting the ‘Current combined pension pot’ slider.
Set the ‘Desired annual retirement income’ slider and move the ‘Personal monthly contribution’ slider to see what different regular contribution amounts could make to how much you could have in your pension and how long it’ll last at your desired retirement age. You’ll see the graph’s projected income and target income lines automatically update, giving you an at-a-glance view of how close you are to achieving your desired pension pot size.
Read more about how our Pension Calculator works.
Self-employed saver benefits of our Pension Calculator
Make up for a lack of Auto-Enrolment When you work for yourself, there’s no employer automatically topping up your pension to keep your pension growing. Our Pension Calculator helps you see whether your current contributions are on track to reach your desired retirement income. If there’s a shortfall, you can experiment by adjusting your desired annual retirement income and contribution levels, or retirement age, to close the gap.
Adapt to changes in business income Regularly using our Pension Calculator to adjust the figures can help you update your savings targets based on financial changes that are part and parcel of working for yourself. You can reflect the impact of financial changes in the calculator, such as adding a one-off lump sum contribution.
Balancing business and retirement goals Having a clear projection of your retirement income makes it easier to set achievable savings targets. This can support you in budgeting your finances and cash flow to help you reach your desired retirement income.
Features to support your self-employed retirement journey
With the demands of running your own business and changes in annual income, prioritising your pension can slip down the list of things to do. However, our range of features can make it easier to grow your pension alongside your business and put you in control of your future.
Future product news
Keep your eye out for our next product blog or catch up on previous blogs. We’re looking forward to spotlighting more of our handy features and free financial tools, plus we’ve got lots of great new updates in the works. Once released, we’ll let you know what they are and how they can help you save for a happy retirement.
Risk warning
As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice.
