How does pension carry forward work?

Pension carry forward rules let you add unused annual allowance from the previous three tax years to this year’s, for years you were in a pension scheme.

The unused amount is added to the current year’s allowance, so a large payment in one year can stay inside the limit. Below are the tests, the order of use, HMRC’s own worked example and the record to keep, as general information rather than tax advice. Wanting your own three years lined up against these tests is a reason to use the form on this page, which reaches an FCA-authorised adviser.

What carry forward lets you do

The annual allowance caps what you can save, across all your pensions together, in a tax year before a charge arises; the annual allowance guide explains it. GOV.UK’s figure is "£60,000 this tax year", which means £60,000 for 2026/27 (GOV.UK, Annual allowance, accessed 18 October 2026). Carry forward lets you exceed it in one year without a charge by drawing on years when you saved less.

HMRC’s Pensions Tax Manual says unused allowance from recent years is added to the current year’s, and dates the rule from tax year 2011-12 (HMRC, PTM055100). The law is section 228A of the Finance Act 2004, which treats the current year’s allowance as "increased by the amount of the unused annual allowance available for the current tax year" (legislation.gov.uk, section 228A).

• It can cancel or reduce a charge. Savings over the allowance are not taxed where enough unused allowance is available to carry forward (GOV.UK, unused annual allowances). What happens when it runs out is in the annual allowance tax charge guide.
• Defined contribution and defined benefit saving both count. Savings are measured as payments into defined contribution pots, by you or anyone else, and as the growth in defined benefit promises; the defined benefit guide covers the valuation.

What conditions must you meet to carry forward?

Three rules come from GOV.UK, the manual and the Act. The first two are tested separately for each year you want to carry from.

You were a scheme member in that year

GOV.UK says a year in which you belonged to neither a UK registered scheme nor a qualifying overseas one cannot be carried from. The manual says membership "at some point in the previous tax year concerned" is enough, and that a member "includes either an active member, a pensioner member, a deferred member or a pension credit member". Under the Act a year still counts where the pension input amount "was nil", and then that year’s whole allowance is unused.

You saved less than that year’s own allowance

An earlier year has unused allowance when the total pension input amount for it "is less than the annual allowance for that same year"; the unused amount is the difference. Each year is measured against its own allowance, not today’s, and HMRC’s pension schemes rates page gives the figure year by year.

You use the current year’s allowance first

The manual’s order is that the allowance for the current year "is used first", with carried amounts only after that. Carry forward therefore matters only in a year when your savings exceed the current allowance.

How far back can you go, and in what order is it used?

Three tax years. For 2019-20 onwards the manual says individuals "can carry forward any annual allowance they have not used in the previous three tax years", and the Act builds the window the same way: the year just ended plus the two before it. For 2026/27 the window is the three years from 2023 to 2024 up to 2025 to 2026, and HMRC’s pension schemes rates table lists £60,000 as the standard annual allowance for each (HMRC, pension schemes rates, accessed 18 October 2026). Each earlier year keeps its own figure: the same table shows £40,000 for 2022 to 2023.

Where more than one earlier year has unused allowance, GOV.UK says to use them "in order of earliest to most recent" and that if you need only part of a year’s unused allowance "you can use the rest in a future year", while that year is still inside the window. The Act treats an earlier year’s excess as used before a later one’s. The oldest year is the one about to fall out of the window, as HMRC’s example below shows.

A worked example from HMRC’s own figures

HMRC’s manual gives a full example, used here with its own numbers. It is set in 2014-15, so every allowance in it (£40,000 and £50,000) belongs to those old years, not to today; the 2026/27 window and its £60,000 figures are in the section above. Only the method carries over. In the manual (PTM055100, Example 9), Sybille "has a total pension input amount of £65,000 for the 2014-15 tax year. The annual allowance for 2014-15 is £40,000." HMRC sets out her three earlier years:

Source: HMRC Pensions Tax Manual, PTM055100, Example 9, accessed 18 October 2026.

The earlier years were still measured at £50,000 although the current year’s allowance was £40,000. The manual totals them: "This means Sybille has £62,000 unused annual allowance to carry forward to 2014-15." Added to the current year, "Sybille can have pension saving of £102,000 without the annual allowance charge being due", and her £65,000 was under that, so no charge arose.

HMRC then shows the order. Her £65,000 used the current year’s £40,000 and £25,000 of the 2011-12 balance, the earliest year. That left £2,000 from 2011-12, which could not be carried on: the manual says that by the next tax year it "will be from four years ago and so will be out of time and not available". The example shows the method, not what anyone else can do. Matching three earlier tax years to their allowances is detailed work, and an FCA-authorised adviser can take it on once you set out your schemes in the form on this page, costing you nothing.

How do the tapered and money purchase allowances affect carry forward?

Either can lower the allowance in a given year, and the manual deals with both, whether the year is one you carry from or the one you carry into. What triggers them is in the tapered allowance guide and the money purchase annual allowance guide.

Taper. For an earlier year in 2016-17 or later, the manual tests the input amount against that year’s reduced allowance to find what is unused, so a tapered year leaves less to carry, or nothing, rather than a full £60,000. In a year when the taper applies to you now, the reduced allowance is used wherever the method says annual allowance, so carried-forward amounts are added to the lower figure.

Money purchase annual allowance. After flexible access to a defined contribution pension, a lower allowance caps later defined contribution saving: £10,000 for 2026 to 2027 on HMRC’s table. It changes carry forward in two ways.

• Into a year where it applies. Unused allowance from earlier years cannot be added to the money purchase figure, only to the alternative annual allowance, which is £50,000 for 2026 to 2027 on the same table (less the money purchase allowance if the member’s allowance is reduced).
• Out of a year where it applied. Where the money purchase allowance produced a charge in an earlier year, the unused amount is measured against that year’s alternative allowance (£50,000 for 2023 to 2024), not the full allowance. GOV.UK adds that unused money purchase allowance itself cannot be carried forward, though unused alternative allowance can.

Does carry forward raise the limit on tax relief?

No. Carry forward lifts the annual allowance, the ceiling on tax-efficient saving. The limit on how much of your own payment earns relief is tested separately.

Your own contributions

The manual gives the most a member can have relief on in a year as potentially the greater of the "basic amount", "currently £3,600", or "the amount of the individual’s relevant UK earnings that are chargeable to income tax for the tax year". Relief belongs to the year of payment, and unused relief cannot be carried between years, so a large personal payment in a year of modest earnings can fit inside the enlarged allowance yet earn relief only up to that year’s earnings limit.

For the self-employed, income from a trade, profession or vocation counts as relevant UK earnings; see the self-employed relief guide. Low or no earnings are in the no-income guide, and the full rules in pension tax relief.

Employer contributions

Employer payments use up the allowance like yours, since GOV.UK counts everything paid into a defined contribution scheme whoever pays it. But the earnings limit does not govern them. According to the manual, they bring the member no tax relief, and tax will not normally be paid on them unless the member’s allowance is exceeded, which is where carry forward can matter. See the employer contributions guide, limited company contributions and salary sacrifice and the allowance.

Whatever the allowance permits, the value of pension investments can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than was paid in. This page covers UK-wide HMRC and GOV.UK rules. Scottish Income Tax applies to pension and other income for people living in Scotland (GOV.UK, Income Tax in Scotland), which bears on the value of relief; see the Scottish relief guide.

Is carry forward automatic, and what goes on a tax return?

Yes, in the sense that nothing is claimed. GOV.UK says: "You do not need to report this to HMRC." The manual adds that it happens automatically, and that if carried-forward allowance covers the excess, nothing is entered on the Self Assessment return for the year it arose or the year it was used. A return comes into it only if a charge remains: an individual with a charge must include it, and GOV.UK names the "Pension savings tax charges" section. The charge itself is in the tax charge guide; the wider question of what to declare is in declaring pensions on a tax return.

So the record is yours to keep. The manual says there is "no need to contact HMRC to make a claim or election", but the individual "will need to keep a record in case their pension input amount exceeds the annual allowance in a subsequent year".

• Add every scheme together. The input amounts for all arrangements under registered pension schemes and relevant overseas schemes are added together.
• Pension savings statements. A scheme sends one automatically only in some cases, such as saving in that scheme alone above the standard allowance, by 6 October after the tax year ends; the tax charge guide has the detail. GOV.UK says to ask each provider if you are in more than one scheme.
• Asking for figures. A member or former member can ask a scheme administrator in writing for their input amounts, and the manual says a member can ask for "the last three tax years". The administrator has until the later of three months after the request and 6 October after the tax year concerned.
• The calculator. GOV.UK links an online calculator, but says hybrid schemes (part defined benefit, part defined contribution) and a flexible drawdown declaration accepted before 6 April 2015 mean working it out yourself.

Questions about pension carry forward

Can I use carry forward with a SIPP or personal pension?

The allowance covers all your private pensions together, per GOV.UK, and carry forward adds to that one allowance. The registered-scheme condition applies to whichever schemes you belonged to in each year; the SIPP guide and the SIPP registration guide cover the rest.

Can self-employed people use pension carry forward?

The test turns on scheme membership and savings, not employment status; only the relief limit counts trade income, as above.

How does carry forward work with a defined benefit pension?

The same way, with a different input: GOV.UK counts the increase in a defined benefit scheme over the year, and unused allowance is the gap between that and the year’s allowance. For an NHS or other public-sector scheme, the scheme is the place to ask for the figures. Valuation is in the defined benefit guide.

How do I work out how much I can carry forward?

The manual’s steps: find the total pension input for each previous year, set it against that year’s allowance, take the difference where input was lower, and add what remains to the current year’s allowance to get the "available annual allowance". Count only years you were a member, and use the reduced allowance for any year the taper applied.

Next step

How much you can carry forward turns on your scheme statements, each year’s allowance and any taper or flexible access. Statements in hand but unsure how they fit together? List them, free of charge, in the form on this page; from there an FCA-authorised adviser could sort them year by year with you. Your scheme can also supply the input figures directly, and the FCA’s pension scams page is worth reading before sharing details with any firm. For the bigger picture, see pension tax relief or pension tax.

Sources

• GOV.UK, Tax on your private pension contributions: Annual allowance
• GOV.UK, Check if you have unused annual allowances on your pension savings
• HMRC, Pension schemes rates
• HMRC Pensions Tax Manual: PTM055100, PTM055200, PTM167100, PTM167300, PTM044100
• legislation.gov.uk, Finance Act 2004, section 228A
• GOV.UK, Income Tax in Scotland