A SERPS pension is a UK Government pension arrangement that was available between 1978 and 2002. It was originally known as the State Earnings Related Pension Supplement and was designed to provide a pension related to earnings, in addition to the basic state pension. The purpose of the scheme was to allow employees to top up their state pension entitlement. Employees and employers contributed to the scheme between 1978 and 2002, and employees who paid full Class 1 National insurance contributions between those years earned a SERPS pension. Members of occupational pension schemes could be "contracted out" of SERPS by their employer, in which case they and the employer would pay reduced NI contributions, and they would earn virtually no SERPS pension.

A SERPS pension is paid out as part of the state pension, and it is not possible to cash it in or take a SERPS pension lump sum. However, if you ever contracted out of SERPS and had a separate pot of protected rights funds in a private or workplace pension, you can cash this in. The new state pension pays £203.85 a week if you qualify for the full amount, but if you’ve built up entitlement to a certain level of additional state pension, your new state pension could be increased to reflect this.

It is important to note that a SERP can also refer to a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan, which is a non-qualified retirement plan offered to executives as a long-term incentive. This type of SERP is not related to the UK Government pension arrangement described above.