Pension basics

These are usually pensions you arrange yourself and are often used by people who are self-employed, not working or not eligible to join their company's workplace pension scheme. They are always defined contribution arrangements but there is no Government-set minimum contribution level.

There are different types of personal pension. These include:

• Stakeholder pensions
• Self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs)

With a workplace pension, both you and your employer contribute towards your pension to provide you with an income for later life or when you decide to retire.

Workplace Pensions are usually two types – Defined Contribution (DC) or Defined Benefit (DB). DC is the more common. This is where your money is put into various types of investment, such as stocks and shares. How much you get in the future depends on how much is paid in and how your investments perform.

DB schemes, such as the LGPS, are guaranteed to pay out an income based on your service and how much you earn when you retire. DB Schemes are also sometimes referred to as a final salary pension scheme.

Your State Pension is paid to you by the Government and is in addition to any workplace pensions or private pensions you may have.

The amount you'll get depends on how many qualifying national insurance contributions or credits you've made - you get these automatically either from working or being in receipt of benefits.

You can check your national insurance record and how much State Pension you're likely to get by doing a State Pension Forecast. When you receive your State Pension depends on your date of birth which you can check on the Government's website: State Pension Age.

When you pay into your pension, some of the money that you would have paid in tax on your earnings goes into your pension pot instead, this is called tax relief.

The amount of pension tax relief you get on your pension contributions depends on the top rate of income tax you pay:

• Basic rate = 20%
• Higher rate = 40%
• Additional rate = 45%

For example, if you are a basic-rate taxpayer and were to contribute £100 from your salary into your pension, it would actually only cost you £80. The government adds an extra £20 on top – what it would have taken in tax from £100 of your salary.

Pension schemes, whether they are work based or personal pensions, allow members to take part of their benefits as a tax free lump sum when they retire.

The LGPS can pay part of your pension as a tax free cash sum on retirement. However, this is dependant on your period of membership in the scheme as this determines whether the lump sum is paid automatically or if it is paid through giving up some of your pension.

If you leave your job or move jobs, you'll stop paying into your current workplace pension and any employer contribution will also stop.

Your pension still belongs to you and the money will remain invested until you take your pension. These types of benefits are often referred to as deferred benefits. Find out more about LGPS deferred benefits.

Your new place of work will have a different pension scheme, and this may be with a different provider to your previous employer. Assuming you qualify, you will be auto-enrolled into another workplace pension scheme if you get a new job. For information on transferring your pension, please visit our relevant page.

You should receive a yearly statement from all of your old pension schemes. However, if, for example, you've moved address and not let your pension provider know, then they won't have the correct information to send this to you.

If you've lost track of any pensions, the first step is to check any old paperwork you have to find out who the pension provider is. Once you've found this out, email or call the company providing the pension and ask them for more information about your savings.

If it's a workplace pension you're trying to track down, you could also try contacting the company you used to work for.

If you can't find any of these details the Government offers a free Pension Tracing Service.