Pension Wise is free, impartial guidance from the government-backed MoneyHelper service that explains your options for taking a defined contribution pension.

So what is Pension Wise in practice? A free guidance service, not a product and not a sales call, which anyone eligible can use before deciding what to do with a pot. It is a natural first place to look for an overview of your options, and the sections below set out what it does, who can use it and where its limits are.

Pension Wise cannot tell you which option to pick for your own circumstances. If your decision turns on your tax position, your health, your State Pension or your family, an FCA-authorised adviser can weigh all of that in one conversation. Asking for an introduction through the form on this page costs nothing, though professional advice itself is not free; Pension Wise stays free whichever way you go, and can come first or alongside.

What Pension Wise is

Pension Wise is the name of the free guidance service for people with a defined contribution pension, the kind where you build up a pot of money and, when you are ready, choose how to take it. MoneyHelper describes it like this:

A free Pension Wise appointment explains the options for taking money from your defined contribution pension. It’s impartial and backed by government.

— MoneyHelper, Pension Wise: learn how you can take your pension, accessed 17 October 2026

The service began in the government's pension freedom reforms. A government evaluation describes it as "a national, government backed service that launched in April 2015 as part of the pension freedom reforms" (GOV.UK, Pension Wise service evaluation). The choices it explains are the subject of our guide to your options at retirement.

The word "guidance" matters. Guidance explains how things work and what your choices are. It is not a recommendation about what you personally should do, which is regulated advice. The difference is covered in its own section below.

Is Pension Wise free?

Yes. MoneyHelper's own page describes Pension Wise as free, impartial and backed by government. There is no charge for an appointment, and it is not a taster for something paid. You can also have more than one; MoneyHelper's booking page says: "You can have more than one appointment if you’d like."

That is worth saying plainly because a lot of pension marketing runs the other way. The FCA warns that an unexpected offer of a free pension review is likely to be a scam; professional advice on pensions is not free. Pension Wise is a different thing: guidance, from a public body, that you ask for yourself. We say more about this in the scams section below.

Who runs it? The Money and Pensions Service, which GOV.UK describes as "an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions". Its link to MoneyHelper is set out below.

What a Pension Wise appointment covers

An appointment is a conversation, or an online walk-through, about the ways you can take money from a defined contribution pension. MoneyHelper says you will find out:

  • when you can access your pension pots
  • the different ways you can take money from your pension
  • how each option is usually taxed
  • how to spot and avoid scams.

In other words, it covers the menu rather than the order. The options themselves are explained in separate guides: pension drawdown, buying an annuity, and taking cash. Pension Wise will help you see how they differ and what each does to your tax, so you arrive at a decision better informed.

After an appointment you can get a written record. MoneyHelper says: "After your Pension Wise appointment, you can view, download or print a summary of the options we explained." It is a summary of what was explained, not a recommendation.

How you have one

MoneyHelper says: "You can have an online appointment at any time or book a date and time with one of our pension specialists." For the online route, its booking page says "You can have an online appointment if you’re aged 50 to 74". If you would like someone to have the appointment on your behalf, "either one of you can call". How long a phone appointment lasts, and what to have ready, is covered in our guide to Pension Wise appointments. To book, use MoneyHelper's own booking page.

Who can use Pension Wise, and from what age?

MoneyHelper sets out the rule in two parts. You can get an appointment if you have a UK-based defined contribution pension and are:

  • 50 or over, or
  • under 50 and you have inherited someone else's pension, are retiring early due to poor health, or your scheme lets you take your pension before age 55.

Pot size does not come into it: "It doesn’t matter how much your pension is worth." That includes small pots. Eligibility is about the type of pension and your age or circumstances, not how much you have saved.

If your pension is not defined contribution

The service is built around defined contribution pensions. MoneyHelper notes that if you have an old pension scheme or work in the public sector (like education, the NHS or the Armed Forces), you might have a defined benefit pension instead. Its page offers a tool to find out your pension type, and you can also ask your provider. A defined benefit pension pays an income set by a formula rather than a pot you spend, so the choices differ; our final salary guide explains that kind.

If you are not eligible for an appointment, the Pension Wise page still offers help: "We can still help if you’re not eligible for Pension Wise." It lists its pension guides and tools, and free guidance from its pension specialists by phone, webchat or online form. Where you are weighing a transfer from a defined benefit scheme, see our page on free guidance about transfers.

Pension Wise is open to people from 50, but that is not the age at which most pensions can be taken; our guide to the minimum pension age has the detail.

Guidance, not advice: what Pension Wise does not do

Is Pension Wise a financial adviser? No, and it does not claim to be. Its own description is of an appointment that "explains the options". MoneyHelper's separate page on pension pots puts the paid alternative in these terms:

A regulated financial adviser can help you plan for retirement, including: recommending products and providers to use; advising where to invest your money; explaining your options to reduce the tax you might need to pay.

— MoneyHelper, What can I do with my pension pot?, read in an archived copy of 28 December 2025 (list items run together)

So the line is this. Guidance tells you what the options are and how each is usually taxed. Regulated advice looks at your circumstances and recommends something, and it is paid for: the passage quoted above sits under the heading "Consider paying for financial advice". What counts as advice is covered in our guide to pension advice, and whether the fee is worth it in our page on that question.

What that means for your decision

  • You will not be told which option to choose, or which provider to use.
  • You will be shown how drawdown, annuities, lump sums and mixes of them generally work, so you can judge what is worth asking about.
  • It is open to you to use the free route first and decide afterwards whether you want a recommendation.

An adviser does not replace Pension Wise, and nothing here suggests they should. Pension Wise explains the options at no cost, and that may be enough to take the next step, such as asking a provider about a specific product. Someone whose position is more tangled, with several pots, a mix of pension types, a health condition or a partner who depends on the income, may want a recommendation as well. An FCA-authorised adviser does that, and this site can introduce you to one if you ask on the form on this page. To look for one yourself, our guide to finding a pension adviser explains how. Enquiring costs nothing; if you want to know what advice itself costs, our page on pension advice costs covers how fees are structured.

Pension Wise and MoneyHelper: are they the same?

Pension Wise is the name of the appointment service, and it is now offered through MoneyHelper, whose pages carry the notice "© 2026 Money and Pensions Service". GOV.UK explains that the Money and Pensions Service "replaces the 3 existing providers of government-sponsored financial guidance – the Money Advice Service, the Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise".

The body exists in law. The Financial Guidance and Claims Act 2018 established it as the "single financial guidance body" (since renamed) and gives it a pensions guidance function: "to provide, to members of the public, free and impartial information and guidance on matters relating to occupational and personal pensions".

For a reader that means one place to look. MoneyHelper offers Pension Wise appointments for defined contribution pensions, and separate free guidance from its pension specialists for people who are not eligible. If you want to compare charges across pensions rather than learn the options, the tools for that are covered in our MoneyHelper comparison guide. For the wider question of where free pension help comes from, see our guide to free pension guidance.

Is Pension Wise any good, safe and independent?

Three questions people ask in one, so here is what can be said from sources.

Independent. MoneyHelper calls it "impartial", and GOV.UK describes the Money and Pensions Service as providing "free and impartial debt advice, money guidance and pension guidance". When the government unveiled the service's name it said it would offer "free and impartial guidance".

Safe, and regulated? It is a government-backed public service and it is free, so an appointment involves no product to buy. As for regulation, the 2018 Act gives the FCA a defined role: under it the guidance body "must from time to time set standards" for those giving its pensions guidance, "must obtain the approval of the FCA" before finalising them, and the FCA must review them "at least once in every three years" (sections 9 and 10).

Any good. A government evaluation exists (research carried out by Ipsos MORI on behalf of Pension Wise, published on GOV.UK on 23 October 2017 and based on appointments from February 2016 to January 2017), but it describes the service as it was then. The honest test is whether guidance gave you what you needed, which only you can judge. If, after it, your position still feels unclear, that is a normal reason to ask for advice.

Scams: how Pension Wise helps you spot them

Spotting scams is one of the topics an appointment covers. It also helps to know what scam approaches look like. The FCA's advice on a cold call about your pension is that hanging up is the safest thing to do. It repeats its warning about unrequested pension reviews, and adds that some scammers may even say they act on behalf of the FCA or MoneyHelper.

Pension Wise is something you ask for through MoneyHelper's own website. The FCA's advice is to get guidance or advice before changing pension arrangements. Its pension scams page has more, and our guide to pension scams and how to report one go further.

Questions people ask about Pension Wise

Can I have more than one appointment?

Yes: MoneyHelper says "You can have more than one appointment if you’d like." Whether you need a second is your call, and for some people the summary of the first is enough.

Do I have to use Pension Wise before I can take my pension?

Not as such. The 2018 Act provides for rules requiring pension schemes to refer you to guidance when you apply to start taking benefits or to transfer, and to make sure you have "either received appropriate pensions guidance or has opted out of receiving such guidance" (section 18, for personal pensions). How that works in practice is covered in our guide to whether you have to use Pension Wise.

Is the Pension Wise guidance booklet available to read?

MoneyHelper's online guide What can I do with my pension pot? explains the options in writing, and its pension type tool tells you whether your pension is defined contribution or defined benefit. Check MoneyHelper if you want a printed copy.

What is pension recycling?

HMRC describes it as "using that lump sum as the means to increase contributions significantly to a registered pension scheme", meaning a tax-free lump sum paid back in to gain more tax relief. Where its recycling rule applies, all or part of the lump sum is taxed as an unauthorised payment (HMRC Pensions Tax Manual, PTM133810); our pension recycling guide sets out when.

Does Pension Wise cover adding AVCs?

Ask the appointment team whether it will cover additional voluntary contributions (AVCs). Our guide to AVCs explains how they work, and they are a fair question to bring to an appointment.

Can I use Pension Wise for an NHS, teachers' or other public-sector pension?

Only if you hold a defined contribution pension. MoneyHelper notes that public-sector schemes are often defined benefit, and if you are unsure, its tool or your provider can tell you. For scheme-specific help, see our NHS pension help guide.

Your next step

If your question was what Pension Wise is and whether it costs anything, you now have the answer: free, impartial guidance, delivered through MoneyHelper, which explains how defined contribution pensions can be taken. It is a sensible first stop, whether or not you go on to take advice.

Once you have the overview and still want a view that takes in your own pots, tax and plans, you can request an introduction through the form on this page. It takes a minute or two, and your details go to an FCA-authorised adviser, who will contact you. This site is not itself an adviser, and an adviser works alongside the free guidance, not in place of it.

Sources