The Buzz.

The following is a transcript of a bonus podcast episode of The Pension Confident Podcast. Listen to the episode or scroll on to read the conversation.

Takeaways from this episode

• Understanding the new tax year - the new tax year started on 6 April 2025, which resets your annual tax allowances. This is an opportunity to set financial goals, such as utilising savings accounts like ISAs.
• Incomes and income tax - the National Living Wage for those aged 21 and over will rise from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour.
• Frozen tax thresholds - the freezing of income tax and personal tax-free allowances means that more people may be pushed into higher tax brackets as their salaries increase.
• State Pension adjustments - the State Pension will rise by 4.1%, benefiting from the triple lock. But some pensioners may feel worse off due to the withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Payment.
• Changes to statutory sick pay - Statutory Sick Pay will increase from £116.75 to £118.75 per week, though this remains a minimal change.
• Increased parental pay and childcare benefits - Statutory Parental Pay will see a nominal increase, while free childcare hours will expand significantly from September 2025, although potential costs remain a concern for parents.

PHILIPPA: Hi there. Welcome to a bonus episode all about the new tax year and what it could mean for your finances. Now, last November, we had Chancellor Rachel Reeve’s first budget. We’ve just had her first Spring Statement. So what’s changing? Well, plenty! From the minimum wage to tax bands, sick pay, and the State Pension - a bunch of announcements came into effect on 6 April. So now’s the perfect moment to get your head around them.

I’m Philippa Lamb, and if you’re not already subscribed to the podcast, why not click to sign up right now? Faith Archer has just walked into the studio. If you’re a regular listener, you already know she’s an old friend of the podcast. She’s a Financial Journalist and Founder of the personal finance platform, Much More With Less - which helps people make the most of their money. Welcome back to the podcast, Faith.

FAITH: Great to be here.

PHILIPPA: It’s nice to see you again. Here’s the usual quick disclaimer before we start, please remember, anything discussed on the podcast shouldn’t be regarded as financial advice or legal advice. And importantly, when investing, your capital is at risk.

The start of a new tax year

PHILIPPA: So, Faith, should we start with the basics? As I said, the new tax year, it started on Sunday 6 April. What exactly is the tax year?

FAITH: Well, it’s the year from 6 April one year to the 5 April the next, and it’s the period over which income tax and other taxes are calculated. So rather than running for the calendar year, from the beginning of January to the end of December.

PHILIPPA: It’s quite a useful reset point in the year, isn’t it, for everyone?

FAITH: Yeah, I think so. You can almost have your ‘tax year resolutions’ and think about the different things you’re going to do now that all your tax allowances have restarted.

PHILIPPA: I’m guessing you do this every year. What sort of things are on your list?

FAITH: Well, from an income perspective, you’re allowed to earn a certain amount of money every year before you start paying income tax. For most people, that’s £12,570 a year. But there’s also some little extra allowances. The £1,000 a year property allowance, the £1,000 a year trading allowance. If you make a bit of money, say selling stuff on Vinted or Depop -

PHILIPPA: OK.

FAITH: - those allowances restart. You can earn extra cash without having to pay income tax. Also, if you’ve got any spare cash that you can sort away, you have allowances, £20,000 is the overall Individual Savings Account allowance -

PHILIPPA: ISA?

FAITH: - the ISA, yes. Then once you put money inside an ISA, it’s protected from the taxman. The taxman can’t touch it for tax, and they’re also not interested if you take any money out of it. There are many flavours of ISAs nowadays. There’s also the Lifetime ISA. That’s a £4,000 allowance with the bonus that the government will add an extra £1,000. It’s meant to be an incentive for younger people to save for [their] first property or for retirement. There’s Junior ISAs for the under 18s, so you can put £9,000 each tax year in those for your kids. And pensions, your pension allowance resets, so you can put a larger sum into your pension.

PHILIPPA: Yeah, and as you say, I’ve been talking about the ISA allowances. They always sound like such a lot of money, £20,000 here, £9,000 there. But you can put in whatever you can afford, but it’s well worth putting in what you can, right?

FAITH: Absolutely. I think the tax year can be a really good trigger just to rethink, are there ways that you can top-up the allowances that are slightly less painful.

PHILIPPA: Yeah.

FAITH: Setting up that Direct Debit for an affordable amount, so it just goes out without you having to lift a finger. If you’re one of the lucky people that’s had a pay rise, for example, then now might be a good time to think, “have you got some spare cash that perhaps you could divert into savings or pension? Can you up a Direct Debit? Could you up, if you’re lucky enough to have an employer who might even match pension contributions, could you up those contributions?” It’s going out straight after payday before you’ve noticed it, before you’ve got used to living on a higher income.

PHILIPPA: What you’re essentially saying is, it’s a spring clean for your finances, isn’t it?

FAITH: Yeah.

PHILIPPA: The beginning of the tax year. Every year, just take a look at what’s going on, make some changes, see where you’re at?

FAITH: Yeah.

Increased pay for employees and costs for employers

PHILIPPA: Should we take a look at what’s actually changed from the Chancellor’s point of view? Because as I said, we had the Budget last Autumn. Some of the things she announced then are only coming into effect now. Then we’ve had the Spring Statement as well. I mentioned the National Living Wage. What’s changing there?

FAITH: Well, I think this is positive. It’s going up. For those aged 21 and over, it’s going to go up from £11.44 an hour to £12.21 an hour. That’s if you’re working 35 hours a week, that’s a reasonably decent increase. Where it’s really going to hit, perhaps, is more on the employer side of it -

PHILIPPA: Yeah.

FAITH: - than the employee. Because for employers, they’re not just having to find the money for increases in the National Living Wage, if that affects some of their staff. But also we’re finally seeing the changes to employee National Insurance contributions (NICs) kicking in. The ones that were announced in the Autumn Statement. That’s quite a tough pill because employers are seeing both the rate at which National Insurance contributions by employers are paid, that’s going up - 13.8% to 15%. And also the point at which they have to start paying it is going down. All of a sudden, they have to start paying employer NICs at £5,000 rather than £9,100. I think that triple whammy: more employer NICs, starting at a lower point and higher salaries if you’re sticking with the National Living Wage. That’s quite an expensive bill on the payroll.

PHILIPPA: Employers will see their payroll cost go up. It depends what business they’re in, [by] how much. There’s going to be a knock-on for jobs, I’m guessing, and maybe a knock-on for how likely you are to get a pay rise this year.

FAITH: Yeah. Fundamentally, if costs have gone up, that money is going to come from somewhere. So either it’s being passed on in higher costs for goods and services, or fewer pay rises, or are they going to be more reluctant to take on additional staff if the cost is going to be higher? If the business is struggling, are they actually going to have to let staff go? We have yet to see how that’s going to roll out, what impact that is going to have on people’s wages and employment prospects.

PHILIPPA: There’s been a lot of speculation in the press, isn’t there?

FAITH: Yeah.

Frozen income tax and personal tax-free allowance thresholds

Now, tax again. Explain this to me because I think it’s often very confusing. Income tax and personal tax-free allowances, they’re frozen again this year. What does that mean?

FAITH: I mentioned that you could earn a certain amount of money before you start paying income tax. At the moment, that’s £12,570. Now, what used to happen was each year that allowance went up with inflation. By freezing them, what it means is if the allowance is the same but your salary increases, you’ve got more income being taxed.

PHILIPPA: At the higher level?

FAITH: Well, just being taxed at all! It means more people start paying tax and more people get pushed up into higher tax brackets. It just means a higher tax take. The fact that it has been frozen, I think it was maybe even April 2022, it’s forecast to be frozen until at least April 2028. This is one way of bringing in a significantly higher tax take for the government rather than just, say, slapping up the rate of income tax.

PHILIPPA: It’s worth being aware of, because it sounds like one of those things you think, “well, if it’s frozen, so what? I don’t need to think about it”. But actually, it’s significant, isn’t it? There’s a term for it, isn’t there? ‘Fiscal drag’.

FAITH: Yeah. It’s a really big intake. I’ve seen figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) suggesting that the freeze since 2022 means there’ll be 9% more taxpayers in all, but 47% more higher rate taxpayers, and again, 47% more additional rate taxpayers. Because of people getting pushed up into these higher rates of income tax.

PHILIPPA: It’s really, really significant.

FAITH: Yeah.

The State Pension and Winter Fuel Payment

PHILIPPA: [The] State Pension, that’s going up.

FAITH: It is! Income tax thresholds may be frozen, but the State Pension, it benefits from the ‘triple lock‘, the full new State Pension. The triple lock, it means that the State Pension increases each year by the highest of either: inflation, earnings growth, or 2.5%.

PHILIPPA: This year?

FAITH: It’s going up 4.1% in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) - inflation.

PHILIPPA: OK, which sounds like good news.

FAITH: Well, it is good news, and I think there are a lot of pensioners that’ll be glad of the increase in their State Pension. Especially because they saw the Winter Fuel Payment withdrawn by the government. That’s something that used to be a universal benefit that pensioners got either £200 or £300 to help pay their heating bills. The change that Labour brought in was that you’d only get the Winter Fuel Payment if you were on certain means-tested benefits, such as Pension Credit.

PHILIPPA: Yeah, this was a change that happened very rapidly, didn’t it? As soon as the new government came into power -

FAITH: Very quickly.

PHILIPPA: - pretty much this happened. I guess for those people, even though the State Pension is going up, it’s going to be offset by the fact that they won’t be able to claim, they won’t get the Winter Fuel Allowance.

FAITH: I think the real kicker, I’ve heard this month referred to as ‘awful April’ because for all of us, not just if you’re a pensioner, but virtually every utility bill you can think of is going up. Now, I’ve seen forecasts that on average, people expect their bills to go up by [around] £400 a year.

PHILIPPA: That’s a lot.

FAITH: And the State Pension is going up by £471 (a year).

PHILIPPA: So when it comes down to it, most people aren’t going to be that much better off?

FAITH: No. If you used to get the Winter Fuel Payment and you no longer do -

PHILIPPA: You’re worse off.

FAITH: You’re worse off. If you look at food prices, there’s been a lot of food inflation. Things aren’t looking rosy.

PHILIPPA: No. I mean, being a bit less doomy, at least, inflation does now seem to be coming more under control, certainly more than it was last year.

FAITH: Yes, not as sky high, no.

PHILIPPA: Before we leave pensions, there’s this issue now, isn’t there? With the State Pension getting close to the level of the personal allowance you were talking about a minute ago. This is the point at which we have to start paying tax. What could that mean for pensioners then? If their pension takes them to the point where they need to start paying tax?

FAITH: Well, it’s the government effectively giving with one hand and taking away with the other. I think it just means that more pensioners will have to pay income tax if they have the smallest amount of other income. Perhaps from a private pension, savings, investments, whatever it is, workplace pensions.

PHILIPPA: They might have been just below the limit where they had to start paying tax, but now they might tip over.

FAITH: Yeah, it’s so clear. I think the full new State Pension from 6 April, I think is like £11,973 a year versus the £12,570 personal allowance. What’s that? Like a £600 difference.

PHILIPPA: Really, really close.

FAITH: Yeah, you don’t need to be bringing in much extra income, and suddenly you’re a taxpayer.

Changes to Statutory Sick Pay, alongside overhaul of benefits systems

PHILIPPA: Sick pay. Statutory Sick Pay (or SSP), that’s changing too, isn’t it?

FAITH: It is. It’s increasing up from £116.75 to £118.75 per week.

PHILIPPA: Not a huge change.

FAITH: Yeah, it’s not a massive change. It’s a little bit up. I mean, that’s the minimum. You’ll find some employers are more generous, but I don’t think many of us would actually like to be trying to fund all of our living costs on that amount per week.

PHILIPPA: No, absolutely. Now, the other issue that cropped up in the run up to the Spring Statement was [the] changes to the benefits system. We now know what they’re going to be. It’s complicated. It affects quite a range of benefits. Do you want to just remind us which ones it is - so that people can check for their own situation?

FAITH: I think the government is very keen to get more people into work and bring down the size of the benefits bill. The main levers it’s using to pull are on Universal Credit, and the Personal Independence Payments (PIP), that are made to people who have disabilities, illnesses that make it more difficult for them to work. They’re effectively making it, I think, more difficult to get Personal Independence Payments to try and make people incentivised to go out, find jobs in some way, and increase their income that way.

Increased Statutory Parental Pay and free nursery hours

PHILIPPA: Family-friendly changes. Now, we’ve seen rises, haven’t we? To statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, and Shared Parental Pay. They’re all going up?

FAITH: They are. They’ll go up nominally from £184.03 to £187.18. But in practice, the amount is either 90% of average weekly earnings or the statutory rate (whichever is lower). The earnings threshold is also going up a tad, just ticking up £123 to £125 a week. Maternity Allowance, though, [the] threshold stays at £30 a week.

PHILIPPA: OK. I mean, something to think about if you’re planning for a new baby, I guess, just to factor those numbers in?

FAITH: Make the budget beforehand so that if you do need to make cuts, you do them as soon as possible, rather than after -

PHILIPPA: Yeah.

FIATH: - you spend the money and suddenly thinking, “oh my goodness, I can’t afford that!”.

PHILIPPA: First step, understand what your employers’ policies are.

FAITH: Yeah, because some employers are way more generous than the statutory minimums.

PHILIPPA: Yes, because if you only get the statutory minimum, that might be way, way less than you would tend to earn normally (or not). But so get on the company website, ask your line manager, whatever it is - find out. Because there’s no standard policy here. It goes company by company, employer by employer.

FAITH: Company by company. It’ll be limited to how much time you take for your maternity leave. There may be reasons why you need to return to work at certain points rather than go on to lower levels of maternity/paternity pay.

PHILIPPA: Thinking about older kids, then childcare, this is a huge cost for millions of parents. I mean, it’s something that’s talked about by everyone with children. What’s happening with free childcare hours? Because they’re going up, aren’t they?

FAITH: They are. It’s not something that’s changing straight away. It’s more from September 2025. The situation at the moment is that eligible working parents can get 15 hours free childcare for children aged nine months to three years [old]. But that then doubles to 30 hours for three and four year olds. The big change from September 2025 is that 30 hours a week should be available for all the kids from nine months up to school age. There’s widening the access to 30 hours a week [of] free childcare.

PHILIPPA: I’m slightly wondering how helpful this will be for everyone. Because there’s already talk of nursery fees going up and swallowing that benefit from the point of view of parents and also the lack of provision nationally. It’s patchy, isn’t it?

FAITH: It’s patchy. It depends what childcare provision is available in your area. Part of the reason it’s patchy is because historically, the amount the government reimburses nurseries for these free hours isn’t actually enough. It doesn’t cover the genuine cost of caring for the children. We’ve seen, I mean, some nurseries have closed. Other nurseries, they get around it by charging top-up fees.

PHILIPPA: Yeah.

FAITH: So your free hours do come with a bill attached, where that’s justified as being for, say, nappies or meals, sunscreen, trips. So there could be some cost. I think one of the other restrictions is that it’s not necessarily 30 hours week in, week out. It’s during term-time rather than all year round.

PHILIPPA: Yeah, that’s a really key thing to understand if you’re working full-time. Time, isn’t it? This doesn’t cover you all year.

FAITH: Yeah. While the free hours of childcare, if it brings down your childcare bill, that’s amazing.

PHILIPPA: Great.

FAITH: Just remember, it’s more like a reduction than potentially completely free.

PHILIPPA: It’ll depend on what nursery you’re using.

FAITH: Yes.

PHILIPPA: Faith, thank you so much. That was a really useful rundown. Sorry to have so many questions. There was a lot to talk about, wasn’t there?

FAITH: There was.

PHILIPPA: If you’re enjoying this series, please do give us a rating and a review. It really helps us reach more listeners like you. Now, if you’ve missed an episode, don’t worry. You can catch up anytime on your favourite podcast app, YouTube, or if you’re a PensionBee customer in the PensionBee app, of course.

Now, next month, we’ll be exploring how to stay on top of your finances if you’re thinking about making a career change. Maybe you’re thinking about reskilling into a whole new line of work. Maybe it’s self-employment or starting your own business that you’re thinking about. Whatever age and stage you’re at, we’ll have plenty of practical tips and inspiration to help you take that next step.

Just a final reminder, anything discussed on the podcast shouldn’t be regarded as financial advice or legal advice. When investing, your capital is at risk. Thanks for being with us.

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.

‍

2019 looks set to be a big year for PensionBee, and we’ve kicked off the new year with some exciting new updates. We’re always working to bring you an innovative, modern pension experience, so read on to find out what we’ve been up to this month.

We’ve launched a Shariah compliant plan...

This month sees the addition of three new PensionBee plans, including our Shariah Plan. This plan invests your money only into Shariah-compliant companies, which could make it a good choice for anyone who’d like to invest responsibly. All investments are approved by an independent Shariah committee, and the fund is managed by HSBC and State Street Global Advisors, so you know your money is in safe hands. Find out more on our plans page.

The low-risk Preserve Plan...

We’re also excited to announce the launch of our Preserve Plan, a lower-risk plan that is designed to shelter your pension from stock market volatility. Instead of investing in the markets, it makes short-term investments into creditworthy companies – reducing your risk with the intention of preserving your money. Take a closer look over on our plans page.

...and our actively-managed 4Plus Plan

The 4Plus Plan could be ideal for people looking to de-risk before retirement. The long-term growth target of 4% can indicate what you’ll expect to receive, so you can start planning your retirement to a degree of certainty.

Our 4Plus Plan aims to achieve long-term growth of 4% per year, by managing your money actively across a range of global investments. The fund manager, State Street Global Advisors, responds to market developments where necessary, always seeking a balance between growth and stability. Find out more about how it works on our plans page.

Check out our redesigned homepage

We’ve given our homepage a makeover to showcase our entire offering – helping customers combine their pensions, increase contributions and make withdrawals, in just a few clicks. It’s these key features of our product that make us a leading online pension provider. Visit our shiny new homepage here.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

It may have been the shortest month of the year but our team were busy bees throughout February. We introduced some important new product updates last month, so read on to find out what we got up to.

We’ve made it even easier to make contributions via bank transfer

We’ve improved our process for customers making contributions via bank transfer to make it simpler to save for retirement. Now, you only need to set up a bank transfer once and we’ll be able to invest any amount you contribute, regardless of the amount you set up the bank transfer with. This means you won’t need to set up a new transfer for different contribution amounts, which may suit customers with a fluctuating income, and it’s even easier to make weekly contributions.

Our improved process applies across recurring and one-off contributions made by bank transfer. We’ve updated our terms and conditions to reflect this change, which applies to existing customers as well. If you’re contributing via bank transfer, make sure to keep track of your payments so you don’t exceed your annual allowance.

Remember, contributions can also be made using Direct Debit. You can learn more about making contributions to your PensionBee pension in our FAQs.

We’ve launched dynamic performance charts in your BeeHive

Customers can now compare their plan performance to the FTSE 100, straight from their BeeHive. This new feature will allow you to track market volatility over time, and gain greater insight into the past performance of our longest running plans. It may also provide context when considering the impact recent stock market fluctuations could have on longer-term investments.

For now, this is only available to members of the Tracker, Tailored, Future World and Match plans, when you log into your online dashboard. Simply navigate to your Account using the tabs, and select ‘My plan’ from the dropdown menu.

If you’ve chosen one of our newer Shariah, Preserve, or 4Plus plans, rest assured we’ll be launching dynamic performance graphs for these too. And soon this exciting new feature will also be available to view in our mobile app.

Our CEO Romi Savova became a PensionBee BeeKeeper for a week!

PensionBee CEO Romi Savova spent a week this month on the front line as a BeeKeeper, solving problems and helping our customers. At PensionBee, our customers are our priority and getting back to basics is a great way to feel good about the work we’re doing to create a modern pension experience, and to identify ways to improve and simplify our services. Romi loved speaking to and learning from our customers. Read about her experience on our blog.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

It’s been another busy month in the PensionBee office as we continue working on updates and improvements, in line with our mission to create an innovative pension product for our customers. Here are some of our highlights from March.

We’re rolling out My Plan updates for our mobile app

We’re always looking to provide our customers with greater insight into their savings, from our easy pensions explainers to helping customers understand their pension performance. We’ve recently made some shiny improvements to your plan page, which you can find under the ‘Account’ tab when you log into your online dashboard. You’ll find information about your plan and its performance, as well as additional resources to help you get into the nitty gritty of your pension plan.

We’re now rolling out these updates to our mobile app, to make it even easier to learn about your plan and how it’s performing. Currently, Android users will find a new ‘Plan information’ link on their ‘Account’ tab, under the ‘My Plan’ heading. Here, you’ll be able to find details about your plan, performance charts, and other useful information. We’ll be rolling out the new update to iOS users in the next couple of weeks, alongside additional resource documents for both platforms.

Guest blogger Faith Archer wrote about the gender pension gap

For International Women’s Day this year, finance journalist and money blogger Faith Archer wrote an insightful guest post for PensionBee, highlighting the gender pension gap and steps we can all take to close it. Faith builds on our research which shows that, on average, men in the UK have 31% more in their pots than women, with the gap increasing to ^{_scot_higher_rate} for men and women in their 50s. Yikes!

Faith addresses the cause of this gap, including its links to the gender pay gap, and offers some helpful suggestions for women to close the gap and make the most of their pension savings. You can read Faith’s full post on our blog.

PensionBee is shortlisted for three UK Pensions Awards

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve been shortlisted for a whopping THREE UK Pensions Awards! PensionBee has been shortlisted in three categories: DC Pension Provider of the Year, DC Innovation of the Year, and Retirement Innovation of the Year. Congratulations to all of this year’s finalists!

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

As Fiona approached 40, she wanted to start building a nest egg for the future. She had several pensions from previous jobs and her main concern was to bring them together, so she could start building a clearer picture and put a saving plan in place.

Fiona fixes her pension mess

After finding out about PensionBee online, Fiona decided to consolidate three of her past pensions with us. There was no need for her to send us reams of paperwork, or spend hours on the phone to old providers. All we needed to combine her pensions were some basic details, like her provider name and her policy number.

PensionBee deal with it all. I just put my name in and my policy number, and then they’ve done everything else. I didn’t have to do anything, it was just... done!

Fiona found the process quick and simple from start to finish, and she now uses our app to keep track of her pension from her smartphone.
‍

{{main-cta}}
‍

Pension peace of mind

With her pensions all in one place, Fiona’s now a lot more relaxed about retirement. She loves the transparency her BeeHive provides and doesn’t worry about her finances like she used to.

Being with PensionBee makes me really relaxed about my finances. It’s all in one place, I can see everything on my app, and I just don’t have to worry about it any more.

In fact she’s inspired her partner Dave to sort his own pension, after he heard about Fiona’s experience with PensionBee!

Fiona’s talked to me about PensionBee from the second she signed up. It’s prompted me to sort myself out and maybe it’s something I’ll be looking at!

Find out what other PensionBee customers have to say over on our YouTube channel, or take a look at customer reviews on Trustpilot.

‍

After a year of waiting on financial advisers to consolidate her pensions, Lucille was getting weary.

She had a number of dormant pensions from previous companies and was concerned about losing track of them, as well as losing their value to costly fees.

Lucille decided it was time to make matters into her own hands, and after a recommendation from a friend she decided to sign up to PensionBee.

Pensions made simple

Lucille found it easy to bring her old pots into one PensionBee plan. She just gave us some basic information and we took care of rest, with her personal BeeKeeper updating her throughout the process.

You’ve got a point of contact. It’s nice to know that if I do want to contact PensionBee I can email my BeeKeeper and get a response from a person!

Lucille uses PensionBee’s pension calculator to work out how much she needs to be contributing to meet her goals and retire earlier. Now, she’s excited to save into her pot and fund her big retirement travel plans.

A transparent pension for the 21st century

Lucille loves the extra transparency she gets with PensionBee. Her online balance helps her follow all her fund’s activity, while her Analytics charts help her track the performance of her money.

PensionBee allows me to see how my pension’s performing. I’ll be able to work out whether I need to ramp up my contributions, which will help me get to retirement. And then I won’t have to work any more!

Find out what other PensionBee customers have to say over on our YouTube channel, or take a look at customer reviews on Trustpilot.

‍

Ever since becoming self-employed Rebecca’s pension had been on her mind. But between running her own business and being a mum for her two young children, she didn’t have a lot of time.

She had five old pensions from previous jobs but thought consolidating them would be too much hassle. Until she stumbled across PensionBee...

A quick way to consolidate

Rebecca was able to quickly and easily consolidate her previous pensions, with the sign up process - including the time spent tracking down her dusty old paperwork - taking no more than an hour and a half. The simplicity involved definetely appealed with her time being so precious, a policy number and a provider name all that was required.

PensionBee helps me from the point of view of being self employed specifically because it’s very simple, very quick, very easy.

Rebecca likes the flexibility that PensionBee offers her as a self-employed saver. There are no minimum contribution amounts and she can make one-off contributions instead of a set amount each month.

Re-engaged to save

Now, Rebecca feels more engaged with her pension and uses the app regularly to pay in and watch her pot grow.

I think I look at the app every two or three days! I’m quite enjoying seeing it grow on my phone.

She didn’t realise how much there was until she brought her old pots together, and the increased transparency that comes with PensionBee has inspired her to save even further.

Find out what other PensionBee customers have to say over on our YouTube channel, take a look at customer reviews on Trustpilot or look at our self employed pension.

‍

We’ve got some exciting updates to share with you, including a fresh look on our website and our rollout of new Simpler Annual Statements, which makes us the first pension provider to offer customers an easy to understand snapshot of their pension. Read on to learn what’s new at PensionBee and how we’re improving your pension experience.

We’ve adopted Simpler Annual Statements to make it even easier to manage your pension

We want to give our customers complete transparency and control over their savings. Whether that’s by giving you full visibility of how your pension’s performing, or making our annual statements easier to understand – we’re on a mission to make pensions simple!

Our Simpler Annual Statements are designed to provide a short and clear overview of your pension. They’ll show you the total balance, how much you’ve contributed to your pension, the tax top ups you’ve received from HMRC and how much your employer has paid in, if applicable.

We’re pleased to be the first pension provider to adopt the new format, since it was announced by the government back in October. Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion, Guy Opperman said: “I am 11^{_personal_allowance_rate} committed to simpler statements and am pleased to see PensionBee adopting the Simpler Annual Statement. I look forward to the rest of the industry doing the same thing in 2019.”

If you have a live balance and transferred your old pensions to PensionBee before the end of the 2018/19 tax year, (and haven’t transferred out or started withdrawing from your pension), you’ll be able to view your Simpler Annual Statement in your BeeHive.

We’ve refreshed our website to show you how PensionBee works, from consolidating to withdrawing your pension

We’re always working to bust jargon and demystify pensions, whether that’s through the articles in our Pensions Explained centre, our Pensions 101 videos over on YouTube, or explaining how pensions work right here on our website. We’ve recently updated our How It Works page to give you a simple and concise walkthrough of our service - our website is as easy and straightforward as it is to manage your pension with PensionBee!

Plus we’ve added new sections on combining your old pensions with PensionBee and making contributions to your new PensionBee plan, which sit alongside our page on how to withdraw your pension when it’s time to retire. Our site covers everything you need to know, from transferring your existing pensions over to us, to receiving tax top ups from HMRC, and even planning your retirement with our drawdown calculator.

We’ve been nominated… again!

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve been nominated for Diversity and Inclusion Champion in the Computing Tech Marketing and Innovation Awards 2019! We’re incredibly proud of our diverse team, whose dedication, commitment, and insight make PensionBee such a wonderful and inclusive place to work.

We’ve also been nominated for Tech Company of the Year in the Evening Standard Business Awards 2019 - alongside Twitter, no less!

🏅We’re pleased to announce that PensionBee has been shortlisted for ‘Diversity and Inclusion Champion’ in the Computing Tech Marketing and Innovation Awards 2019 🏅 #pensions #fintech #awards #diversityandinclusion https://t.co/T7vKbLtNoB pic.twitter.com/lPCt83TdI5
_{— PensionBee (@pensionbee)}

And that’s not all - PensionBee has also been nominated in the Investment Marketing and Innovation Awards 2019. We’re shortlisted for three awards: the Corporate Social Responsibility Award, Most Innovative Direct Consumer Proposition, and the Open Innovation Award. We’re proud to be bringing our company values of innovation and love to the pensions industry.

Plus, our CEO, Romi, has been nominated for no less than six accolades at the Women in Pensions Awards 2019, including Pensions Woman of the Year and Role Model of the Year. Congratulations to everyone who was nominated.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

Summer is finally here and there’s a buzz in the air - and in our BeeHive! We were busy bees last month, working to bring exciting new features to your account as well as stacking up those award wins. Here’s what we got up to in June.

We’ve automated your tax top ups from HMRC

We’ve recently made improvements to the way your tax top ups from HMRC are added to your account. Now, whenever you make a personal contribution to your pension, we’ll automatically add your ^{_corporation_tax} tax top ups from HMRC so you can see the funds in your account straightaway.

This means you’ll no longer need to wait eight weeks for these to credit your account, and will be able to see a more accurate view of your balance whenever you log into your BeeHive. Don’t forget, most savers can contribute £100 to their pension from a personal bank account, and get a £25 top up from HMRC, to a maximum of £40,000 in the current tax year.

We’re keeping your pension safe

Keeping your savings safe is paramount to us at PensionBee, so we’ve updated our website to highlight the security procedures we use to protect your money. PensionBee is directly authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and we’re also a member of the Association of British Insurers, working on better standards in the pensions industry.

Plus, our pensions are managed by the world’s largest money managers – State Street Global Advisors, HSBC and BlackRock – so you know your money’s in experienced hands. They invest your money and your pension is kept completely separate from our own funds.

If our money managers fail, your pension will be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to 10^{_personal_allowance_rate}. We’ll also pursue any compensation on your behalf. Should PensionBee fail, your money manager will continue to invest your pension. We don’t manage your money, so your savings would be safe.

We protect your data with full encryption, secure data protection practices, and we will never share your personal information without your permission. You can find out more about our security policies on our website and our FAQs, or get in touch with your BeeKeeper if you have any questions.

The awards keep coming…

We’re pleased to announce that PensionBee was named ‘Diversity and Inclusion Champion’ at the Computing Tech Marketing & Innovation Awards, in recognition of our work campaigning for diversity and representation in the pensions industry.

We’re immensely proud that half of our team consists of women and we have around ^_higher_rate BME representation at PensionBee – an achievement that’s unheard of in our sector. We’re working hard to prove that pensions can be a good career for anyone looking to be on the cutting-edge of product development and innovation, while challenging the perceptions of what people in pensions should be.

We also won two awards at the Investment Marketing and Innovation Awards: ‘Most Innovative Direct Consumer Proposition’ and ‘Open Innovation’. The first accolade acknowledges our simple online user journey which has transformed pension transfer processes to give you complete control and clarity over your pension.

The second award recognises our innovative use of Open Banking in an industry that hasn’t changed or adapted with advances in technology in decades. We plan to share our APIs with even more banking marketplaces and aggregators in the near-future to put pensions back where they belong – at the forefront of your finances.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

Personal finance blogger and mum of three Lynn was keen to start saving into her pension again after taking some time off work to set up her business. Lynn needed an easy, flexible self-employed pension as she entered her 40s.

PensionBee’s self-employed solution

Lynn consolidated her old pensions with PensionBee, finding our transfer process simple and painless. We just needed some basic details about her old pensions, like her provider name and policy number, and then we did all the work - no paperwork, no fuss.

One of the things I really love about PensionBee and being self-employed is that I’ve got flexibility to put whatever I choose into my pension each month.

Now, Lynn can make contributions into her pension straight through our app, with no minimum or fixed contribution amount. With a fluctuating self-employed income, this means that Lynn can save an amount that works for her each month, whether it’s £1000 or £100.

Achieving long-term financial goals

In previous jobs, Lynn didn’t opt in to her workplace pension scheme, a financial decision she regrets as she gets closer to retirement. Now that she’s saving into her PensionBee plan, Lynn feels reassured as she tracks the performance of her savings on the app.

It feels incredible to have that visibility. It gives me a sense of reassurance that I know exactly what’s going on with my money.

It’s always better to start saving for retirement early, but since transferring to PensionBee, Lynn finally feels in control of her pension savings. She’s reaching her financial goals and getting back on track for a comfortable retirement.

Find out what other PensionBee customers have to say over on our YouTube channel, or take a look at customer reviews on Trustpilot.

‍

Whether you’re loving or loathing the heat, it’s safe to say that the ‘Great British Summer’ is finally here. In between the awards ceremonies and the sunshine, our team has been working hard to make managing your pension even easier. Here’s what we’ve been up to this July.

We’ve made it even easier to see your pension balance grow

We’ve made a few changes to the ‘Balance’ tab in the BeeHive so it’s now even easier for you to understand your transactions. As part of this we’ve changed how your tax top ups are displayed so it’s more straightforward to see which tax top up relates to which contribution.

You’ll also be able to see more information on your rewards, from the name of the person you successfully referred to the corresponding tax top up. Remember, you can recommend PensionBee to your friends, and as soon as they successfully transfer a pension, we’ll automatically add £50 to your pension and £50 to theirs too (£40, plus a £10 tax top up). Full terms and conditions can be found on our website.

We’ve invested over half a billion pounds on your behalf

We’re proud to announce that we have now surpassed ^{_higher_rate_personal_savings_allowance}m in pension money, with a further £400m on its way. That means you’ve trusted us with almost a billion pounds of your retirement savings!

Thanks to you, PensionBee has become a key challenger and disruptor in one of the oldest industries – in just a few years. We don’t take the trust you’ve placed in us lightly and will keep campaigning for change and listening to your feedback, so we can continue to bring you a leading pension product.

Our app’s just turned 1

Can you believe it’s already been a year since we launched our mobile app? The app was designed to help you to manage your pension with ease, with 24/7 access to your balance and the ability to view past performance and make contributions – all from the palm of your hand.

We’ve got lots of exciting updates planned over the next few months so watch this space. If you haven’t already, download the PensionBee app from the Apple App and Google Play Stores.

Don’t forget you can also see your PensionBee balance in some other leading money management apps including Starling, Yolt, Moneyhub, Money Dashboard and Emma.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

Summer might be winding down, but we’re as busy as ever! We’ve been working hard on more new features and continue to stack up those award nominations. Read on to find out what we got up to in August.

We’re enhancing our Analytics tab to make retirement planning better

We’re working on some updates to the Analytics tab in your BeeHive to to help our customers better plan for retirement. We’re building a new retirement planning tool to make it simpler to see how much money you’re likely to receive at retirement and how long your pension could last, based on your current contributions. The new calculator will let you know whether you’re on track or whether you’ll need to boost your savings to reach your long-term goals.

It can be tricky to figure out how much you need to save for retirement, which is where our handy tools come in to help make planning for your future straightforward and easy to understand. And remember, it’s never too late to start saving! If you’re in your 40s or your 50s, there’s still time to build a decent pension pot for a comfortable retirement.

PensionBee shortlisted for two Technology Product Awards 2019

We’re proud to announce that we’ve been shortlisted for two Technology Product Awards in 2019: ‘Most Innovative Use of AI / Automation - SMEs’ and ‘Technology Hero of the Year’, for our CTO, Jonathan Lister Parsons.

Innovation is one of our PensionBee values and we’re incredibly passionate about making use of exciting technology to create a seamless, modern pension service that serves our customers any time, any place. Our CTO Jonathan works tirelessly alongside the rest of our tech team to make your pensions experience simple and convenient.

We’ve also been shortlisted for a Schroders UK Platform Award in the ‘Leading Digital Platform’ category, an accolade we’re immensely proud to have won back in 2018.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

We’ve been working hard this September to bring you some exciting new features, including a new retirement planning tool and improved withdrawals for over-55s. Read on to find out what we’ve been up to this month.

We’ve enhanced our ‘Analytics’ tab to give you a clearer picture of your pension situation, now and in the future

If you’ve logged into your BeeHive in the last few days you may have noticed the improvements we’ve made to the ‘Analytics’ tab. We’ve replaced your old performance chart with an interactive retirement planning tool, to help you better visualise the level of savings you might need for retirement.

Instead of focussing on past performance, your new retirement planning tool is forward looking, and helps you see how much you have now, compared to your target, at a glance. The new tool will let you know whether you’re on track for a comfortable retirement or whether you’ll need to boost your savings to reach your long-term goals.

There are three key elements to the new ‘Analytics’ tab:

• Retirement Planner - a brand new tool that lets you see the level of savings you might need based on your long-term goals
• Transfer and Contribution breakdown - a new snapshot of what’s in your pension pot, based on how much you’ve transferred, contributed and received from HMRC in the form of tax top ups
• Past performance - a refresh of the old analytics chart that now simply shows the growth of your pension pot over time

We’ve increased the efficiency of withdrawals for over-55s

A few months ago we announced that whenever you make a contribution to your pension we will automatically add your ^{_corporation_tax} tax top ups from HMRC, so that you can see the funds reflected in your pension balance straightaway. We’ve now introduced the same improvement for withdrawals so instead of your money taking several weeks to reach your bank account, it will soon take a matter of days.

On average it will take around 10 working days for you to receive your money, as long as there are no issues verifying your bank details. Plus, if you’re making repeat withdrawals to the same bank account(s), you’ll now be able to select your bank details from a drop down menu without needing to input the same information each time.

Remember, you can only start withdrawing your pension after your 55th birthday, and therefore won’t be able to benefit from these new features until then.

Our CEO, Romi, is to help establish the government’s Pensions Dashboards

The way we manage our pensions is changing, with the government planning to introduce an online dashboard that lets you see all of your pensions together – from your old workplace pensions to the State Pension – in the next few years.

While the project is still in its infancy, last week it was announced that our CEO, Romi, would be joining the Pensions Dashboards IDG Steering Group alongside nine others from a diverse range of companies including Which? and Moneyhub. The group has been chosen to represent the interests of consumers, fintechs and the pensions sector, and will be working on the practicalities of establishing pensions dashboards services and making them available to the general public.

As you know, PensionBee is already successfully using technology to help customers like yourselves find and combine their pensions, giving Romi valuable insight into the process. Romi’s appointment will help ensure that consumers have a louder voice in the creation of pensions dashboards and that the end product delivers a service that’s fit for purpose.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

Setting yourself a retirement goal is a great way to take control of your retirement planning. A realistic and achievable goal could help you see whether you’re on track to achieve the kind of retirement you want, and to encourage you to stay on track! Here are three easy steps to setting a good retirement goal.

1. Budget

Before you can start planning for your retirement, you’ll need to know what your finances look like in general. You’ll want to start with a budget, which will help you to see where you’re spending and where you can save. Begin by listing your essential monthly expenses, including rent or mortgage payments, bills, food, transport costs, and any other regular payments. You should also list any existing contributions you make into your savings accounts, pension, and other investments.

Next, make a record of all your non-essential purchases each month, like eating out and takeaways, new gadgets, subscriptions, and drinks at the weekend. You can find the cost of these expenses by checking your bank statements. Many modern banking accounts, like Monzo and Starling Bank, automatically categorise your payments, so it’s even easier to identify where you’re spending.

Once you’ve listed all of your expenses, it’s time to calculate your income. Subtract the cost of your monthly expenses from your monthly income to see what you have left at the end of the month. You might need to make some changes to your spending habits in order to save more into your pension. Consider which non-essential purchases you can cut back on or stop entirely; maybe you’re still paying for a subscription service you haven’t used in six months! Working out a healthy budget that works for you and your lifestyle will enable you to set a realistic retirement goal because you’ll be able to see what’s achievable for a comfortable retirement.

2. Think about the future you

Once you’ve set up a good budget, it’s time to start planning for the kind of retirement you want. Have a think about what sort of lifestyle you would like to have in your 60s, 70s, and 80s, and how much this is likely to cost you. In 2016/17, the average UK couple had an annual retirement income of £29,952, which covers all the essentials like a home and bills, as well as small luxuries like the occasional holiday.

It can sometimes be difficult to envision our lives in retirement, so start with the basics and think practically. Think about where you’ll live and what your day-to-day expenses are likely to be. Take a look at your budget to see how much you’re currently spending on food and transport, and consider how these habits might change in the future. For example, the cost of your weekly shop may reduce once your kids have moved out and you’re no longer preparing meals for a large family. Plus, you’re likely to be commuting less once you’ve retired! Remember to factor in the increasing cost of living, and think about your income streams. You might receive an income from your pension alongside other investments or a part-time job.

Once you’ve got a rough idea of your ideal retirement income, you can use our pension calculator to see how much you need to be saving in order to meet your goal. Our calculator will tell you whether you’re on track or whether you need to be saving more. You can adjust your retirement age and how much you’re contributing to land on a realistic target that you can work towards.

‍

{{main-cta}}
‍

3. Get on top of your pensions

After you’ve worked out how much you need to save in order to meet your retirement goals, you’ll need to start fortifying your savings. First, it’s a good idea to track down any old or lost pensions to see if you can boost your savings. Consider combining your old pensions as bringing all your pension savings together could make it easier to manage them. Plus, you might be able to save on fees which, left unchecked, might eat away at your old pots.

Check to make sure you’re enrolled on your workplace pension scheme, which is an easy way to top up your retirement savings. Contributions will be taken straight from your paycheck so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to save, plus employer contributions can boost your pot with free money!

Finally, consider saving any extra cash into your pension, for example after a bonus or inheritance. You can use our pension calculator to see how this can help your progress towards your retirement goal. Remember, most people are eligible for a ^{_corporation_tax} tax top up from HMRC on pension contributions, which can really help to build a solid pension pot.

We want to help you to make sense of pensions so we’ve put together our Pensions 101 series over on our YouTube channel to explain how pensions work and how to get on top of your retirement savings. Take a look and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

‍

This month we’ve been reflecting on the feedback you give us, and how we can incorporate your ideas to continue delivering a leading pension product. Read on to find out what we’ve been up to in October and the changes we’ve made in response to our customers’ feedback.

Our approach to sustainability

Reducing our impact on the environment and investing responsibly are subjects that are close to all of our hearts and you can read more about sustainable investing in our blog. As our customers, we feel it’s important that you know what our approach to the environment is, and how we plan to campaign for the issues that matter to you most.

We believe pension providers have a key role to play in the transition from the carbon economy to one based on 100% renewable energy sources, and should promote positive climate change activities in the companies that your pension funds are invested in.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, and if you’ve got a question on the sustainability of your pension plan, we’ll put it directly to your money manager when we film your next plan update. Get in touch by emailing: [email protected].

Your analytics chart is back

Following the launch of our new retirement planning tool, you asked us to bring back the old analytics chart, and we listened! To see the past performance and growth of your pension pot over time, simply log in to your BeeHive and click on the ‘Analytics’ tab, where you’ll find it below the new retirement planner and transfer and contribution breakdown chart.

We’re speaking out about slow pension transfer times

Last week the Telegraph and the Sun published our analysis of more than 50,000 pension transfers, looking at the fastest and slowest providers. There was a huge variation between firms, with some taking just 12 days to transfer a pension, and the worst taking an unbelievable 404 days.

Outdated legislation from 1993 allows pension providers to hold your savings hostage for up to six months before honouring your wishes and completing a pension transfer. We know this can be incredibly frustrating for our customers, which is why we’re renewing our campaign for a pension switch guarantee.

Thankfully lots of things have changed in the past 26 years, and it’s time for pensions to be brought into the 21st century. We’re calling on the government to create new legislation that will allow savers to easily and safely change their pension provider, in the same way we can change our bank or energy provider in a set number of days.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

As things start to wind down for the festive season, there’s been no let-up at PensionBee. From hosting our first ever hackathon event, to putting the hard questions to your money managers on your behalf, read on to find out what we got up to in November…

How we’re engaging your money managers on sustainability

Last month, we discussed our approach to sustainability and why we believe pension providers have a key role to play in the transition from the carbon economy to one based on 10^{_personal_allowance_rate} renewable energy sources. In the weeks since, we’ve continued to put pressure on your money managers to answer your questions about the inclusion of certain companies, both in your quarterly plan update videos and also in writing.

Our CEO, Romi, recently wrote an open letter to Sacha Sadan, Director of Corporate Governance at Legal & General, querying Shell’s inclusion in the Future World Plan. While Legal & General are yet to publicly respond in full, they told the Guardian that they believe the oil company could do more and they were pushing for greater transparency on how Shell’s production plans aligned with the Paris agreement. We’ll let you know once we hear more, but in the meantime you can read Romi’s letter in full and stay up to date with the latest news in on sustainability.

Introducing Scam Man & Robbin’

At the end of November we held our eagerly anticipated Pension Scams Hackathon event which brought together some of the most innovative “pentech” (pension technology) companies in the UK, and challenged them to work together to create a concept for an online game that increases awareness of pension scams.

Cross-company teams from PensionBee, Nutmeg, AgeWage and Smart Pension had just six hours to deliver the concept for a game which met three assessment criteria: virality, engagement and relevance. At the end of the day, concepts were judged by three pensions industry experts: Michelle Cracknell CBE, Non-Executive Director at PensionBee and former CEO of the Pensions Advisory Service; Margaret Snowdon OBE, President of the Pensions Administration Standards Association and Chairman of the Pension Scams Industry Group; and Stephanie Baxter, Deputy Personal Finance Editor at The Telegraph.

The winning concept, ingeniously called Scam Man & Robbin’, casts the player in the role of vigilante ‘Scam Man’, who’s main objective is to protect people’s pensions, blowing the whistle on anything he thinks could be a scam.

Inspired by one of the world’s most-loved superheroes, Scam Man & Robbin’ aims to challenge common misconceptions which may initially seem positive about a pension scheme, such as guaranteed high returns or a friend’s recommendation, but may in fact be the hallmarks of a scam.

We’re excited to start working on the game, and you can expect to see Scam Man & Robbin’ sometime in early 2020.

We’re ending the year on a high

Last week PensionBee was named ‘Online Business of the Year’ at the Growing Business Awards, which celebrated the strength, vision and resilience of fast-growing SMEs and entrepreneurs.

The judges praised us for being ‘ahead of the curve’ and highly aware of our ‘social responsibility to grow sustainably and maintain a high level of service and innovation’.

We’re also thrilled to announce that our CEO, Romi, was named ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the 2019 City AM Awards earlier in November, seeing off stiff competition from business leaders in industries as diverse as fintech and medical services to energy and manufacturing.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

This article was last updated on 13/12/2022

2019 was a big year for PensionBee: we launched a bunch of new features, made some important product improvements, and celebrated a ton of award and industry wins! Here are some of our highlights from last year.

We launched some new features

Back in January, we launched three new pension plans: our Shariah, Preserve, and 4Plus plans. These plans offer specific investment approaches that could be suitable for different investment goals. For instance, our Shariah Plan invests your money in accordance with Islamic principles on finance, which may make it suitable for anyone looking to invest more responsibly. Our Preserve Plan reduces risk in order to preserve your savings as you approach retirement age.

In December 2022, we launched our new-look “Refer a Friend scheme“ which makes it even easier to refer your friends via our web and mobile apps. Remember, you’ll get a £100 (£80 from PensionBee and £20 tax relief from HMRC) added to your pot for each friend that opens an account with us and adds £100 or more to it. And with up to 50 friends you can refer, you could earn up to ^{_starting_rates_for_savings_income} in pension contributions!

And we improved some existing ones

This past year, we’ve also made some significant product improvements, including introducing a new retirement planner that lets you see the level of savings you might need based on your long-term goals. We also made it easier for you to see how much you’ve transferred and contributed to your pension pot, and how much you’ve received from HMRC in the form of tax top ups, and how your pot has grown over time.

We also became the first pension provider to adopt the new Simpler Annual Statement. The Simpler Annual Statement is designed to help consumers understand and compare their pension pots with different providers more easily, including clear and simple information on pension charges.

We’ve been celebrating our wins

2019 saw us win a slew of awards alongside a heap of nominations recognising our product innovation, dedication to customer service, and commitment to an inclusive and diverse workplace.

It’s not just trophies that we’ve been celebrating, though. We’re so grateful to all the support and feedback that we’ve received from our customers this past year, which has enabled us to consistently improve our product, expand our team and office, and continue to push the pensions industry into the 21st century (and a new decade!) Halfway through 2019, we reached ^{_higher_rate_personal_savings_allowance} million in assets under administration and received our 1,000th Trustpilot review! As always, a huge thank you to our wonderful customers for trusting us to make pensions simple and engaging.

2020 has been no less busy so far, as our team has been hard at work pushing out a new look and getting stuck into a new year of pensions innovation, love, and hard work. Keep an eye out for our billboards that have just been unveiled across the country and let us know what you think on social media! We can’t wait to see what this next year will bring.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

We’ve been working hard to banish the January blues and help the nation get their pensions back on track. From unveiling our bee-eautiful new logo to advertising PensionBee to commuters up and down the country, we’ve started as we mean to go on, kicking off 2020 (and the new decade) with a bang! Read on to find out what we’ve been up to in January.

We’re taking a more transparent approach to pensions investments

In early January, we surveyed close to 2,000 customers in our Tailored Plan about their views on sustainability in the context of profitability. The aim was to understand how you, our customers, want your money invested with PensionBee and to what extent you want us to take the social outcomes created by companies into consideration in the investment process.

One of our core ambitions as a pension provider is to lead the pensions industry to a better place than where we found it, which means investing sustainably and helping you to plan for a happy retirement are a key focus.

Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be considering your responses and exploring potential changes to our investment offering in light of this. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter: you can get in touch by emailing [email protected]. Thanks to everyone who took part in the survey. To learn more about the results, read our summary here.

Introducing our brand new logo

At the beginning of the year we unveiled our new logo and brand refresh, to better reflect our identity and values. We believe bees evoke thoughts of happiness, warmth and hard work, and a stronger emphasis on the ‘bee’ puts our values of love and quality right at the center of our brand.

The redesign follows our fifth birthday in December, and marks our transition from young startup to a leading online pension provider. In the past five years our offering has evolved from a core pension consolidation service to a full service pension provider, providing hassle-free contributions and withdrawals, planning tools and responsible investing. Our new logo is a clearer representation of the mature brand PensionBee is today, without losing the playful tone you’ve come to expect from us.

We’ve been making a buzz at commuter stations across the UK

If you travel to work via National Rail it’s likely you’ll have seen some of the thousands of billboards we’ve placed in commuter stations across the UK. 2020 will be a big year of growth for us with more billboards, TV and radio than ever before so watch this space!

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

Last month we worked hard behind the scenes enlisting the help of you, our beloved customers, to give us your feedback on everything from our plans to our app. We’ll have lots of exciting announcements to share with you in the coming months, but for now read on to find out what we got up to in February.

We’re making improvements to our app

Since the start of the year, we’ve been working on regular app releases as part of our ongoing efforts to bring you a leading pension product. From reducing loading times to fixing those niggling little things you may not have even noticed, we’re continually enhancing our app to make it even easier for you to manage your pension.

This month we’ll be focussing our efforts on improving the way you pay money into your pension, and would like to thank the customers who’ve kindly volunteered to give us feedback. We’re working towards establishing a customer testing group to participate in surveys, focus groups, prototype testing and much more, so watch this space!

Why our values are at the heart of everything we do

At PensionBee we bring our values of simplicity, honesty, quality, innovation, and love to life by thinking about our customers, our local community and the planet in everything we do. We believe pensions are for everyone, and one of the things we’re most passionate about is achieving wider representation in the pensions industry.

In February we became an accredited Living Wage Employer, which means we have solidified our commitment to paying our staff the London Living Wage. The Living Wage is a set amount calculated annually by the Resolution Foundation, based on the best available evidence about living standards in the UK.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer, that’s committed to improving gender diversity and paying our staff a fair wage so they too can look forward to a happy retirement.

PensionBee scoops three Boring Money Awards

We were recognised at the Boring Money Best Buys 2020 Awards in three categories: ‘DIY Pensions’, ‘Beginner investors’ and ‘Sustainable investors’. We’re thrilled to be named as one of the best providers of online investing services based on everything from our call response times and communications to our customer reviews.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍

Throughout March we worked hard to ensure that we’ve been on hand to support you just as we normally would, while also transitioning to remote working to protect our colleagues and the wider community.

Several of our customers have been in touch via phone, email, live chat and social media in the past month to share their views on the current situation and ask questions about their pensions. We’re always here to help and welcome your feedback so if you have any comments, queries or concerns don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’re available via the usual contact methods, and our opening hours remain the same.

While it may have been unsettling to see fluctuations in your balance during the past month, as long-term investors we have to take the rough with the smooth, and be patient during the downturns. It’s important to remember now more than ever, that downturns don’t last forever and markets and pension balances will eventually recover.

Whatever’s going on in the world around us, we’re committed to bringing you a leading pension product. Read on to find out about the projects and initiatives we worked on last month.

We’re launching a fossil fuel free pension later this year

In March, we announced our plans to launch the UK’s first mainstream fossil fuel free fund, in partnership with Legal & General. We came to this decision after surveying customers in our Future World Plan, who told us that they wanted the option of completely excluding oil from their pensions – even if that meant a potential reduction in profitability.

We strongly believe that everyone should have control over where their money’s invested, and are proud to be the first provider to offer a fund like this. With your help, we want to shape the future of sustainable pensions, giving savers the option of using their investments to transform the world they live in for the better of the planet, society and their retirement.

It’s almost the end of the current tax year...

That means you only have a few days left to use up any unused allowance for the 2019/2020 tax year (up to 100% of your earnings, to a limit of £40,000 for most people). You can also carry forward unused allowances from the previous three years.

Most basic rate taxpayers will automatically get a 25% tax top up on all of their personal pension contributions, while higher rate taxpayers can claim a further 25% through their Self-Assessment tax returns, and top rate taxpayers can claim an additional 31%.

If you would like to make an additional lump sum contribution, then it would make sense to do this by bank transfer so as not to miss the 5 April deadline.

Your bank might take some days to process your payments so if you’d like your contribution to reach your pension by 5 April, don’t leave it until the last minute.

We’re finalists for two UK Pensions Awards and two European Pensions Awards

PensionBee has been shortlisted in two categories at this year’s UK Pensions Awards: ‘DC Pension Provider of the Year’ and ‘Diversity and Inclusion Excellence’.

We’ve also been shortlisted for two awards at the 2020 European Pension Awards: the ‘European Pensions Innovation Award’ and the ‘Diversity Award’.

We’re also pleased to announce that our CEO, Romi, has been named as a “Standout 35 Winner” in the 2019 Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Powerlist.

Keep an eye out for our next update on our blog. We’re always working on new features to make our customers happy, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section or over on social media, and we’ll feed it back to the team.

‍