Personal pension scheme

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A personal pension scheme (PPS), sometimes called a personal pension plan (PPP), is a UK tax-privileged individual investment vehicle, with the primary purpose of building a capital sum to provide retirement benefits, although it will usually also provide death benefits.

These plans first became available on 1 July 1988 and replaced retirement annuity plans. Both the individual can contribute as well as their employer. Benefits can be taken at any time after age 55 if the plan rules allow, or earlier in the case of ill health. In the past, legislation required benefits to be taken before age 75, and many plans still contain this restriction. Part of the fund (usually 25%) may be taken as a tax-free lump sum at retirement. New rules on drawing on the retirement fund, known as "Pension Freedom", came into effect on 5 April 2015.

There are two types of personal pension scheme: insured personal pensions, where each contract will have a set range of investment funds for planholders to choose from (this is not as restrictive as it sounds, as some modern schemes have over a thousand fund options) and self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs).

Insured personal pensions with charges capped at a low level, and which satisfy certain other conditions, are known as stakeholder pension.