To find your guaranteed minimum pension (GMP), ask the administrator of the final salary scheme you were contracted out of. HMRC's checker is for schemes.

How do I find out what my guaranteed minimum pension is?

Ask the scheme that holds it. That is usually the administrator of your old employer’s final salary scheme, but if an annuity was bought for you, the insurer may hold the record instead, so ask both: HMRC’s guidance says occupational schemes, "insurance companies or friendly societies (where an annuity has been purchased)" must use a member’s benefits, including any GMP, to provide a pension (GOV.UK, Provide a pension for your scheme member). Once you hold a figure, use the form on this page, quick to fill in, to book a free chat; an FCA-authorised adviser can then read the GMP alongside your State Pension forecast and any other pensions you hold.

You can only have a GMP if you were in the right kind of scheme at the right time. HMRC’s calculation guidance says schemes that were contracted out on a salary-related basis (COSR schemes, in HMRC’s shorthand) must provide one covering contracted-out service in the years 6 April 1978 to 5 April 1997 (GOV.UK guidance on calculating a member’s GMP, published 19 December 2018). It is a weekly amount worked out from your own contracted-out earnings, not a pot with a balance. The background is on what a guaranteed minimum pension is; if you are unsure what type of scheme you were in, start with how to tell whether you have a final salary pension.

Old payslips settle whether you were contracted out at all. According to GOV.UK’s page on contracting out, most people in work before April 2016 were contracted out at some stage, and a payslip dated before 6 April 2016 showing National Insurance category letter D, E, L, N or O confirms it (GOV.UK, Contracted out of the Additional State Pension). A payslip proves contracting out; only the scheme can give you the GMP figure.

What to ask your scheme administrator for

A one-line request for "my GMP" can bring back a single number with no context. When you write or ring, ask for:

  • the GMP figure, and whether it is a weekly or yearly amount, since HMRC’s method produces a weekly one;
  • the split between GMP built up before 6 April 1988 and from that date, because the two parts are treated differently (see whether a GMP increases);
  • the age at which it becomes payable, and whether it has been revalued up to that age;
  • the contracting-out dates the scheme holds for you;
  • whether the scheme has equalised or converted its GMPs, and whether that changed your figure.

HMRC no longer tracks these rights. Its guidance on the end of contracting out says HMRC "will not track contracted-out rights or issue statements to pension schemes", and schemes were asked to report members who left or transferred before 6 April 2016 to HMRC before December 2018 as part of Scheme Reconciliation (GOV.UK, How pension scheme administration is affected by the ending of contracting-out, published 6 April 2016). The scheme’s own records are what you are asking about.

If the letter that comes back is full of pre-88 and post-88 terms you cannot place, an FCA-authorised adviser can decode the letter with you, line by line and free of charge, on a call-back you book from the form on this page.

Guaranteed minimum pension calculator: why the GOV.UK checker is for schemes

HMRC does run a GMP checker, but its GOV.UK page is headed "Pension administrators: check a member's GMP". Using it takes a Government Gateway login for the Pension Scheme Online service and, for each member, details including the scheme contracted out number (GOV.UK, last updated 2 June 2017). It is written for administrators checking their records against HMRC’s, which is why your figure reaches you through the scheme.

Nor is there a single current GMP rate or standard amount to look up. HMRC’s method starts from each member’s own contracted-out earnings, revalues them under yearly orders and turns the result into a weekly pension, so the figure is personal to you.

If your figure looks wrong, the records may disagree. Writing for schemes that are winding up, The Pensions Regulator says a scheme’s records and HMRC’s can differ because of, for example, the start and end dates of the contracting-out period, or the contracted-out earnings recorded (TPR, Winding up, accessed 22 October 2026). In that wind-up setting it regards £2 a week as a reasonable tolerance and suggests HMRC’s figure is used for gaps below it. Checking the dates and earnings the scheme holds for you is a sensible first question.

Lost the scheme? Finding who holds your GMP

If you cannot remember who ran the scheme, list your employers before April 2016 and use DWP’s Find pension contact details service, which can also be reached on 0800 731 0175. It works from an employer’s or a pension provider’s name and gives you contact details to follow up; GOV.UK is clear that it cannot confirm a pension exists or say what one is worth.

So the tracing service gets you an address or a phone number, and the GMP figure comes from the scheme once you reach it. Cost and copycat sites are dealt with on is the Pension Tracing Service free?, the wider search on finding a lost pension, and the State side of a contracted-out record on finding a lost SERPS pension.

When can I get my guaranteed minimum pension: 60 or 65?

Your scheme must make a GMP available at 65 for a man and 60 for a woman. HMRC’s guidance adds that those ages stay fixed even though State Pension age is rising from 65 to 68.

That is not the whole answer for your own start date. A scheme pension can be paid to a member "at any time subject to scheme rules", so your scheme’s rules decide whether yours can start earlier or later (early retirement reductions covers what starting sooner can cost). If you are still working when you reach GMP age, payment can be put off, but your consent is needed when the GMP comes from a different job from the one you are in, or when the deferment would include the period five years after reaching 60 (women) or 65 (men). If you left the scheme before retiring, HMRC’s calculation guidance says the GMP must be revalued up to GMP payable age, or to death if earlier. Ask the administrator which age your figure is quoted at.

How does a GMP sit alongside my State Pension starting amount?

They are paid by different bodies, and contracting out links them. DWP’s guide says that if you had qualifying years on your National Insurance record at 5 April 2016, it worked out a "starting amount" for the new State Pension as the higher of two calculations, both reflecting any time you were contracted out, and that if you were contracted out before 6 April 2016 a deduction was made from both (DWP, Your State Pension explained, updated 6 April 2026). The reason, the guide explains, depends on the scheme type: either your National Insurance was charged at a lower rate, or part of it was paid into a stakeholder or personal pension in place of the Additional State Pension.

So contracting out shows up in your State Pension, but DWP is not the body that pays or states your GMP. How the two fit together across a retirement is covered on final salary pensions and the State Pension and in the UK State Pension guide.

GMP equalisation: why your scheme may write to you

Men and women had different GMP ages and build-up rates, and HMRC’s equalisation guidance says the GMP requirements "can give rise to a difference in treatment between men and women which schemes are required to address in accordance with their equal treatment obligations", and leaves the method to each scheme (GOV.UK, published 23 January 2019).

The Government Actuary’s Department, writing in January 2024, says the 2018 Lloyds case "provided clarity and confirmed equalisation was needed", that the issue concerns GMP accrued from 17 May 1990 up to 5 April 1997, and that for some members benefits will need to be uplifted. It also noted that "Many pension schemes are still working towards equalisation" (GOV.UK, Supporting clients to equalise pensions, published 9 January 2024). A letter about equalisation, or about converting GMPs into other scheme benefits, may therefore come with a revised figure; GMP equalisation explained goes further. The effect on your own pension turns on the method your scheme picks, which an adviser can unpack for you, free, once you send the form here.

Other things people ask when looking for their GMP

Is a guaranteed minimum pension a pot I can cash in?

No: it is an amount of pension, not a fund with a balance. HMRC’s guidance lists limited cases in which GMP rights can be paid as a lump sum, such as a trivial commutation or a serious ill-health lump sum, with the conditions for each set out in regulations. The wider options are on cashing in a final salary pension.

I transferred out years ago. Could my GMP still matter?

It can. In the second Lloyds judgment, on 20 November 2020, the High Court held that, for transfers out of the Lloyds schemes made under the cash equivalent legislation, the trustee owed a duty to pay a correctly calculated transfer value that allowed for the member’s right to equalised benefits ([2020] EWHC 3135 (Ch)). The old scheme’s administrator is the one to ask whether that affects your transfer.

Do public sector schemes have GMPs?

Some do. A Treasury consultation about public service schemes (GOV.UK, updated 22 January 2018) discusses GMPs earned in public service. Whether yours includes one is for the NHS, local government, Civil Service or other scheme administrator to confirm.

Will my State Pension forecast show my GMP?

DWP’s Check your State Pension forecast service is for your State Pension. Ask the scheme for the GMP.

What to have ready before you ask the scheme

Gather your National Insurance number, the names of your employers and the dates you worked there, and any scheme reference from old statements; the administrator will tell you what else it needs. The wider picture is in final salary pensions and deferred final salary pensions. Rather not read the scheme’s reply on your own? Your name and number on the short form here are enough for an adviser with FCA authorisation to ring and go through it with you, free.