AGB stars, protoplanetary nebulae and planetary nebulae are widely distributed throughout the galaxy. These objects are very bright in the IR (>103L(sun)) and often shine right though the Galactic Plane extinction, which makes them useful probes of Galactic dynamics and chemical evolution (e.g. Dejonghe & Caelenberg 1999). Since the post-AGB/PPN phase is brief, only a few hundred of these sources are presently known, most having been detected by the IRAS all-sky survey. UKIDSS has the capability to detect and image many thousands of AGB and post-AGB objects thus providing essential information on their Galactic distribution. There has been substantial progress recently in observing the complicated processes at work as a red supergiant star evolves into a planetary nebula, both with HST and using ground-based techniques such as imaging polarimetry (Ueta et al. 2000; Gledhill et al. 2001). The UKIDSS survey will have sufficient spatial resolution to detect structure in the dusty envelopes of the more evolved post-AGB sources and provide a unique survey of PPN morphology. The near-IR survey can be combined with mid- and far-IR data to identify PPNe via the thermal continuum emission and solid state signatures of the shells of gas and dust which they are ejecting. Mid-IR data will be provided by the MSX galactic plane catalogue and we anticipate that far-IR data will be provided by Astro-F, a Japanese satellite due to be launched in 2003, which will survey the whole sky at 50-150 micron with 20 times better sensitivity than IRAS at 50-60 micron. These wavelengths will be most useful for detecting new sources, whose IR counterparts will then be located in the UKIDSS GPS. Finally, since AGB and post-AGB stars are variable both photometrically and in their mass loss rate, a multipass survey such as the GPS will provide greater completeness (by ensuring that fainter objects are not missed because they were at minimum) and information on variabilities and hence evolutionary state. Variability data will also pick up the very rare AGB stars undergoing nuclear pulses in the envelope (e.g. Sakurai's object) and possibly other, so far unobserved periods of rapid stellar evolution.