How Plan Hub works and what it leaves out

All amounts are shown in today’s prices. £30,000 in the year you turn 75 means what £30,000 buys now. That is why the growth rate you choose is growth after inflation.

Your State Pension and any defined benefit pension stay at the amount you enter, in today’s money. In practice that assumes they rise in line with prices. Many defined benefit schemes cap their yearly increases, so check your scheme’s rules.

Each year, Plan Hub compares your spending with the income and savings you can use at that age.

• Savings outside pensions, such as ISAs, cash and General Investment Accounts (GIAs), can be used at any age.
• Workplace pensions and Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) open at the access age you set. The default is 57, because the earliest age most people can take a private pension rises from 55 to 57 on 6th of April 2028.
• By default, a private pension is not drawn while that person is still working.
• Defined benefit pensions start at the age on your statement. If you take one earlier, Plan Hub reduces it by about 5% for each year early, and never below 40% of the statement amount. Your scheme’s own early retirement terms may differ.
• State Pension starts at the State Pension age you enter, using the yearly amount from your forecast.

By default, Plan Hub uses savings outside pensions first, then private pensions once they open. You can change this to share withdrawals across both.

Income Tax is estimated for each year using 2026/27 rates, with Scottish rates if you choose them. For couples, each person is taxed on the pensions and income in their name.

• State Pension and defined benefit pensions count as taxable income.
• 25% of each workplace pension and SIPP withdrawal is treated as tax-free, up to the remaining lump sum allowance you enter. You can switch this off.
• ISA withdrawals and cash savings are treated as tax-free. Tax on interest is not included.
• When Plan Hub takes money from savings outside pensions, the GIA’s share is in proportion to its balance. Only the profit share you enter on Plan (50% if you leave it blank) is taxed, as capital gains after the £3,000 yearly allowance, at 18% or 24% depending on the owner’s other income. Dividend tax while the money stays invested is not worked out.
• Tax bands stay at 2026/27 levels in today’s money. Income Tax thresholds are currently frozen, so in real life more of your income could be taxed than the Hub shows.

Your invested pots grow at the single rate you choose, after inflation. Cash is assumed to keep pace with inflation, so its value stays constant in today’s money.

By default, fees are treated as already allowed for in your growth rate, and nothing extra is taken off. If you switch to entering platform, fund and adviser charges, Plan Hub takes them off your growth rate each year. In that case, enter your growth rate before fees so they are not counted twice.

Real returns go up and down. The market paths view runs 250 modelled return paths using your growth rate and 12% yearly volatility, a measure of how much returns can swing from one year to the next. In each year of a path, every invested pot (pensions, ISAs and GIAs) gets the same return, less any fees you have entered, so the paths do not reflect your particular investment mix. Cash stays out of the ups and downs and keeps its value in today’s money. These are not historical sequences. They are illustrations, not predictions.

Each stress check re-runs your plan with one thing changed, so you can see which assumption matters most. Your saved plan is not altered.

1. Growth after inflation two percentage points lower
2. Lifestyle spending 10% higher
3. Private pensions not available before age 60
4. Planning to age 100
5. Invested pots 20% lower today, with cash unchanged
6. A £20,000 one-off cost at your stop-work age
7. All monthly contributions stopped
8. Higher platform and fund charges

These sources inform the tax and pension rules described above. Plan Hub’s modelling assumptions and simplifications are explained separately on this page. Tax rates and allowances are checked each tax year.

• Income Tax rates and Personal AllowanceGOV.UK
• Scottish Income TaxGOV.UK
• Lump sum allowance for tax-free cashGOV.UK
• Increasing the normal minimum pension age to 57HMRC
• State Pension ageGOV.UK
• Check your State Pension forecastGOV.UK
• National life tables, UK: 2022 to 2024Office for National Statistics
• Capital Gains Tax ratesGOV.UK
• Tax on dividendsGOV.UK