
How pension saving works

Saving into a pension is a simple, low cost and tax efficient way to save towards your future.
• Your Retirement Account is set up for you by IBM.
• You and IBM pay in, and the government helps out in the form of tax relief.
• The money that you and IBM pay into your Retirement Account builds up your pension savings.
• Your Retirement Account is invested in one or more of our investment funds.
• The aim of an investment fund is to grow the value of your Retirement Account.
• You can decide what to do with your money, and how you take it from age 55*, as long as you have left employment with IBM. Please note if you're an active member of the Plan you would need to opt out and transfer your Retirement Account to another provider if you wished to start taking your pension whilst still working for IBM. There can be tax consequences if you continue paying into a pension plan after you have started to take pension benefits.
*The Government has announced that this will increase to age 57 in 2028, therefore if you are not 55 before this date you will need to wait until you are 57 before you can take retirement.
More in this section

Understand how your contributions are invested and what you need to consider.

Planning your retirement is probably the most important aspect of financial planning for you to consider. Our free course with The Open University will help.