Former protected rights
These are the part of your pension funds that were built up from contracted-out contributions that were paid into your pension plan. These funds were a result of contracting out of the State Second Pension (formerly the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS)) under this or a previous plan. The ability to contract-out stopped on 6 April 2012, so no further protected rights funds will have built up since then.
On 6 April 2012, all protected rights funds were converted to 'ordinary rights' and are now treated in the same way as non-protected rights.
Non-protected rights
These make up the rest of your personal pension fund under your plan. They are built up from pension contributions made by you, and/or your employer or transferring similar contributions to your plan from another pension plan.