The glide planner: your path from full-time to State Pension

What is a glide into retirement?

A glide is a gradual move from full-time work to State Pension: you dial down your working time in stages, and your pension pot tops up your pay until your State Pension arrives. The question it answers is not just “when can I stop?” but “how could the money fit together, year by year?”

Most glides have three phases. First, dialling down: working 80% or 60% of full-time, with take-home pay falling by less than your hours. Then the bridge years: from when you stop or start drawing your pot until your State Pension starts, when your pot does most of the work. Finally, State Pension and beyond: a guaranteed income arrives and your pot only needs to fill the gap.

The bridge years are usually the most expensive part. Every year of part-time pay inside them means a smaller withdrawal, and a pot that keeps growing for longer. Read more in The bridge years.

Worked example

On the example assumptions, a £300,000 pot supports a £25,000 yearly spending target until about age 83. Working at 60% until 64 instead of stopping at 60 keeps it going beyond 90.

This is an example, not a real person. They were born on 15 June 1974, so they are 52 now, can usually draw a private pension from 57 and reach State Pension age at 67. They earn £55,000 full-time in England, have £300,000 in pension pots, and assume 2% a year growth after inflation. They aim to spend £25,000 a year after tax, their own figure between the minimum and moderate Retirement Living Standards for one person.

• While working at 60%, take-home pay of £27,280 already covers the £25,000 target, so nothing is taken from the pot. It keeps growing and is about £351,000 when they stop at 60.
• In the seven years from 60 to 66, after they stop work, the pot pays the whole bill: £26,454 a year before tax gives £25,000 after tax. By 67 about £203,000 is left.
• Bridge years: the planner counts 10, from 57, the drawing age they chose, to their State Pension at 67.
• From 67, the State Pension covers about half the target, so the pot only needs to provide £14,645 a year before tax, £12,452 after tax.
• The pot runs out at 83. After that the State Pension alone leaves them about £12,452 a year short of the target, about £99,000 in total by 90.
• One change: working at 60% until 64, then stopping, keeps the pot going beyond 90, with about £62,000 left in today’s money.

None of this says what anyone should do. It shows how much difference a few more part-time years, a lower spending target or another source of income can make.

How this works and what it assumes

The planner steps through each year from your current age to 90, adds up your income after tax, and takes from your pension pot only what is needed to reach your spending target. Everything is in today’s money, so growth is growth after inflation.

1. Work pay: your full-time salary times the share you work in that stage, less 2026 to 2027 income tax and employee National Insurance (8% between £12,570 and £50,270, 2% above). No National Insurance is charged once you reach State Pension age.
2. State Pension: from your State Pension age, worked out from your date of birth under current law, at £241.30 a week (£12,547.60 a year) unless you enter your own figure. It is part-year in the year you reach that age.
3. Other pension: any final salary or other pension you enter, from the age you choose, taxed as income.
4. Your pot: grows each year at the rate you choose. From your drawing age, the planner withdraws what is needed to meet your target after your other income. Each withdrawal is treated as 25% tax-free and 75% taxed as income, a simple assumption similar to taking an uncrystallised funds pension lump sum (a UFPLS), until the £268,275 Lump Sum Allowance is used. The pot cannot fall below zero; any unmet amount after that is recorded as a shortfall.
5. Earliest drawing age: 57, or 55 or 56 if you reach the age you choose before 6 April 2028, when the normal minimum pension age rises from 55 to 57. Some schemes give a protected pension age.

It deliberately leaves things out. It does not model pension contributions, so your pot does not grow from new saving, including any employer contribution while you still work. Income above your target is not saved. It assumes one person, one pot, standard tax codes, and the same tax rules every year. It ignores ISAs and other savings, care costs, and the chance that returns are uneven. Real growth of 2% is an assumption, not a forecast. For couples, it models one person’s pay and pot against the target you choose.

If the numbers feel tight, they are a starting point for a conversation. Pension Wise offers free, impartial guidance if you are 50 or over and have a defined contribution pension.