Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP)

A tax-efficient way to take control of your retirement

SELF-INVESTED PERSONAL PENSION (SIPP)

Simply pick a ready-made fund and leave the rest to us, or if you prefer you can build your own bespoke pension portfolio. It’s also easy to transfer in an existing pension.

What is a SIPP?

SIPPs (Self Invested Personal Pension) are a great way to save for your retirement. They offer many tax advantages to help your money grow in time for your retirement.

  • Investment returns are free from UK income tax, dividend tax  and capital gains tax.
  • Money you pay into your SIPP benefits from basic rate tax relief which boosts your contribution by 20%.
  • Most pension contributions qualify for 20% tax relief – even if you’re a non-taxpayer.
  • Higher and additional rate payers could claim back even more through their annual tax returns. Learn more about tax relief
  • You can start saving into a Barclays SIPP from 18 and can access your money from age 55 (rising to 57 from 2028).
  • Once you reach 55 (or 57 from 2028) you can withdraw 25% of your pension tax-free.
  • SIPPs are flexible with how you can access your pension upon retirement – options include drawing an income while the rest remains invested or, buying an annuity which will give you a secure monthly income.(1)

 

Tax relief on contributions

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) pays an extra 20% of your pension contributions into your SIPP (effectively a refund for basic rate tax), and higher earners can claim even more tax relief. Learn more about tax relief

Tax-free growth

Profits, dividends and interest on your pension investments are sheltered from income tax and capital gains tax when held in a SIPP.

Invest from £50

You can invest from £50 a month with a Direct Debit, transfer in money from an existing pension with another provider or simply open your SIPP with a lump sum.

Flexible retirement

Withdraw a 25% tax-free lump sum, take a flexible or fixed level of income, or combine multiple options. You can access your pension benefits from age 55, rising to age 57 from 2028.

The value of investments can fall as well as rise so you may get back less than you invest. Tax rules can change, and their effects vary depending on your individual circumstances. Please check the costs involved before transferring.

Why choose our SIPP?

Investment choice

We offer a wide range of investments to help your pension grow. Ready-made funds allow you to just choose your level of risk and reward and leave the rest to us. You can also build your own pension portfolio from over 8,000 shares, funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs) bonds and more.

Earn interest on cash

Cash held in your SIPP will earn tax-free interest from day one. See our current interest rates.

Easy consolidation

Move your pension pots in to your Barclays SIPP so they’re easy to manage. Once we have your transfer request, we’ll work to put all your pensions together so they’re easy to view and manage.(2)

Secure

We are a FTSE 100 listed business that uses the latest technology to safeguard our 48 million customers’ assets. We’re also the first bank to achieve BSI KITEMARK™ for Secure Digital Banking.

Our awards

Boring Money Best for Customer Service 2025
Boring Money, Consumer rated value for money 2025
Online Money Awards 2023 Winner Best Stockbroker
 Online Money Awards, Best SIPP provider 2024

We were voted Best for Customer Service 2025 and Consumer Rated Value for Money 2025 from Boring Money, and Best Stockbroker 2023 and Best SIPP Provider 2024 at The Online Money awards(3)

Picture of five gold stars

"I’m happier saving and investing with Barclays because it’s a bank I know and trust – trust and confidence is very important, particularly when it comes to my money and investing.”

- Graham, 60, Oxfordshire

Choose where to invest

Whether you’re new to investing or an experienced investor, we’ve got a choice of investments for you.

Ready-made Investments

Leave the hard work to us when you choose one (or more) of our Ready-made Investment funds. These range from low to high in terms of risk and potential return – just select the one that’s right for you.

Pick your own

Build a bespoke portfolio of UK and international shares, funds, ETFs, bonds, and investment trusts for your pension pot with the support of our exclusive research and expert insights.

Mix and match

If you prefer, you can use a Ready-made Investment fund to get started and add other investments alongside. If you’re unsure where to invest you can hold cash (and earn interest) while you decide.

A simple, low-cost fee structure

Customer fee

0.25% per year

up to £200,000

and 0.05% on investments over £200,000

Administration fee

£31.25 + VAT quarterly

(£125 + VAT per year)

This fee will be collected by Barclays and paid to AJ Bell who administer the SIPP.

Activity costs table

Activity

Cost

Buying and selling funds online

No charge**

Regular investments (including shares)

No charge

Dividend reinvestment

No charge

Holding cash

No charge

Transferring investments

No charge

Cash withdrawal and account closure

No charge

*Including ETFs, investment trusts, bonds and gilts

**£25 per trade by telephone. Taxes may apply when buying shares. A foreign exchange and an international brokerage fee will be charged when trading international shares.

Buying and selling shares online – £6 per trade. Free to invest in funds online.

Learn more about our fees and Interest rates on cash.

Depending on your activity additional SIPP charges may apply. See a full list of SIPP fees. [PDF, 524KB]

Transfer a pension to us

If you have pensions elsewhere (including other SIPPs) simply transfer them to us by opening a Barclays SIPP and requesting a transfer. Once you’ve given us your instruction we’ll arrange the transfer for you.

Transferring could save you time and money by having all your pensions together in a single, easy-to-manage account. Transferring a pension doesn’t affect its tax-efficient status, but you should make sure you're aware of the risks involved before you act. Read an explanation of key issues to be aware of [PDF, 1.8MB] when transferring pensions.(2)

Learn more about our Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPP)

When you pay into a Barclays SIPP, we will automatically claim basic rate tax relief at 20% from HMRC and add it to your pension pot. This means if you pay £8,000 into your SIPP you’ll receive a further £2,000, boosting your pot to £10,000.

As you may expect there are some restrictions. Firstly, it’s limited to 100% of your annual UK earnings. Even if you don’t pay Income Tax you can still contribute up to 100% of your earnings. And, while you can benefit if you don’t have any earnings, you’ll only get tax relief on the first £2,880 you pay into a pension each tax year – topped up by HMRC by £720 to give you £3,600 (6 April to 5 April).

If you pay Income Tax above the basic rate you can claim additional tax relief on your Self-Assessment tax return to bring the total relief to either 40% or 45%.

If you have an Investment Account, Investment ISA or use Barclays Online Banking with a current account just log in to apply.

If you don’t have any of these you can apply for a Barclays SIPP without logging in.

You can top up your Barclays bank account, or by a debit card, bank transfer, Direct Debit or cheque. To use your debit card simply log in to Smart Investor and go to the ‘pay in’ section where you’ll find a link which takes you to the website of the SIPP administrator AJ Bell, and they’ll process your contribution. You’ll be asked for your SIPP Account number and your date of birth, please have these to hand.

Please note it will take up to five working days for the money to be available to invest in your SIPP. Alternatively, you can top up by bank transfer, Direct Debit or cheque.

There’s a limit on the amount you can contribute to your pensions each tax year which attracts tax relief – known as your Annual Allowance. For most people this is £60,000 per tax year, or 100% of your UK earnings, whichever is lower.

Pensions also offer the unique benefit of being able to ‘carry forward’ any unused annual allowances from the previous three tax years. The amount you carry forward is reduced by your annual allowance usage during those tax years.

If you exceed the Annual Allowance, you will normally face a tax charge, as any excess contribution will be subject to your marginal rate of income tax.

Your Annual Allowance will be reduced if:

  • You’ve drawn a taxable sum from a defined contribution pension, in which case the amount you can pay into Defined Contribution or Money Purchase pensions (excluding Defined Benefit pensions) and receive tax relief reduces to £10,000 per tax year or 100% of your income, whichever is lower (and you can also no longer make payments in relation to previous tax years).
  • If your total income is above £200,000 and your income and pension contributions made on your behalf exceed £260,000 your Annual Allowance will be tapered.(4)

We don’t offer tailored financial advice, so if you’re not sure about investing or how a pension works, seek independent advice. Tax rules can change and their effects on you will depend on your individual circumstances.

When you’re eligible and decide to retire, one option is to take up to 25% of your SIPP as a tax-free lump sum.
There’s an upper limit to this tax-free sum known as the Lump Sum Allowance (LSA), which for most people is set at £268,275. This limit won’t affect most savers as they apply to those with pension pots upward of £1 million.

There is also another limit called the Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance (LSDBA), which for most people is £1,073,100. This puts an upper limit on how much can be paid out as tax-free lump sums on death if you die before the age of 75, but it’s also reduced by the tax-free lump sums you take during your life. After 75, all death benefit lump sums are taxable in the hands of the beneficiary.

The changes mean you can save into your pensions without the concern of a lifetime allowance tax charge should you breach the limit. However, you should consider whether making any lifetime contributions will affect other entitlements provided under any lifetime allowance protection that you may have.

We can take care of that. You’ll just need to complete a SIPP transfer form which can be found by logging in to My hub and selecting ‘SIPP’ from the list of your accounts available, then click on the link to ‘Transfer in investments’.

Transferring is simple and usually takes around a month if you want to keep your investments exactly as they are in your current pension. Transfers can be faster if you sell and transfer your pension as a cash sum, but you will miss any growth in the market while the transfer takes place.

We accept transfers from UK pension funds including:

  • Personal pensions
  • Executive pension plans
  • Stakeholder pensions
  • Group pension plans
  • Company-sponsored money purchase schemes.

Before transferring your pensions, you should check that you wouldn't be giving up any benefits of your existing pensions. This might include loyalty bonuses, guaranteed annuity rates or spousal pensions.

Please note that we can’t accept transfers from defined benefit pension schemes into the Barclays SIPP as it’s unlikely to be in your best interests to transfer these savings into a SIPP.

If you have any doubts whether you should transfer a pension, you should seek advice from a financial adviser.

For more information on SIPP transfers and possible penalties read our factsheet [PDF, 1.3MB].

Once you have decided to go ahead and you’ve opened your SIPP simply complete and return the form and we’ll take care of the transfer legwork for you.

When you reach retirement age (usually 55 rising to 57 from 2028) you can:

  • Take up to 25% of your savings tax-free and then draw a taxed income as you need to.
  • Take a lump sum or even the whole fund at once and 25% will be tax-free. Beware, taking money out of one or more of your pensions in this way may increase your income in a given tax year significantly and result in you paying more tax than you would do if you drew an income gradually. 
  • You can buy an annuity to receive a guaranteed income for the rest of your life.
  • Take smaller amounts as and when you like with 25% of each withdrawal being tax-free.
  • You can also use a combination of these options.

For more information on taking benefits from your SIPP and the points to consider read our article on retirement options.

This minimum age for drawing pension benefits is set by the government and may rise in future. All amounts drawn above the 25% tax-free lump sum will be taxed at your marginal rate at the time.

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Already have an account?

If you have an account, log in to continue.

Need help? Call us

If you have any questions, you can call our UK-based team on 0800 279 3667.(5)

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Important information

  1. Your retirement options also include taking an uncrystallised funds pension lump sum (UFPLS). This is available to you once you have reached your minimum pension age, provided you are yet to access your pot in other ways including buying an annuity or taking a 25% tax-free lump sum. You are able to choose further retirement options after choosing an UFPLS but not before. Usually, 25% of an UFPLS is tax-free. The remaining 75% is taxed as income at your marginal rate.(Return to reference)

  2. Before transferring check that you won’t be giving up any valuable benefits from your existing pensions, that our SIPP administration charges aren’t higher than your current pension plans, and you won’t be liable for an exit penalty by your current provider. See our SIPP Factsheet for more information. [PDF, 1.8MB] (Return to reference)

  3. We are one of multiple platforms to win Boring Money's value for money award which was based on a survey of investment platform customers from December 2023 to December 2024. Please note this does not guarantee profits or necessarily mean we are the cheapest platform available.(Return to reference)

  4. If you have withdrawn a taxable income from your pension the Annual Allowance is replaced by a lower Money Purchase Annual Allowance of £10,000. It is subject to certain additional rules, including the removal of the carry-forward of unused relief provision. If you are a high-income individual, your annual allowance may be reduced, if you are unsure you should take professional advice. More information can be found in our SIPP Key Features Document. [PDF, 303KB](Return to reference)

  5. Lines are open from 7:30am to 7:00pm Monday to Thursday, 7:30am to 6:00pm on Friday, and closed during weekends and public holidays. To maintain a quality service, we may monitor or record phone calls. (Return to reference)