The three retirement lifestyles — and what they actually cost

Most people can't answer "how much do I need to retire?" — not because the answer is complicated, but because nobody has ever shown them a benchmark. Pensions UK (formerly the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, or PLSA) publishes exactly that: the Retirement Living Standards, a national picture of what three different retirement lifestyles cost a single person per year.

Minimum (around £13,900 a year) covers the essentials with a little left over — food, utilities and eating out about once a month, but no car and no overseas holidays. Moderate (around £32,700) adds financial security and flexibility: a car, an overseas holiday, more eating out. Comfortable (around £45,400) brings financial freedom and some luxuries — more holidays, more spent on food and socialising. For a couple the figures are £22,500, £45,400 and £62,700. (Source: retirementlivingstandards.org.uk, Pensions UK 2026 figures.)

None of these is a target anyone sets for you. They're reference points — a way of turning a vague worry into a concrete comparison. When you know which lifestyle your current savings trajectory points at, you know what conversation to have.

The full new State Pension currently pays around £12,548 a year — £241.30 a week in 2026/27 (source: gov.uk). Put that against the standards and the picture sharpens: the State Pension alone gets a single person most of the way to the Minimum standard — everything above that comes from workplace pensions, private pensions and savings.

That gap — between what the State Pension provides and the lifestyle you actually want — is the single most useful number in retirement planning. It's also exactly what our free Where You Stand report shows you, benchmarked against people your age.