When employees want to stop (opt out) of contributions

There are two ways employees can ‘opt out’ of your workplace pension by stopping their contributions. These rules are set by the government and enforced by The Pensions Regulator.

 

Employees can stop contributing to your Scheme at any time in these two ways

1. An employee stopping contributions to the Scheme within one month (opting out)
If an employee asks to stop contributing to the Scheme within the first calendar month of being enrolled, they’ll opt out of the Scheme and you must refund their contributions.  After that date, you can’t refund their contributions. Employees will receive an enrolment notice saying they’re a member of the Scheme and they’ll be given a deadline to opt out. They can’t opt out until they get this notice.

2. An employee stopping contributions after one month
After one calendar month has passed employees can still stop making contributions – ‘cease active membership’. It works in a similar way to opting out, but after the one-month opt-out window has expired, employees won’t get back any money they’ve put into the Scheme. Their pension savings will be invested in one of our two funds until they retire. But, they can also transfer these savings to another provider of their choice.

Re-enrolment

If an employee opts out, it’s likely they’ll need to be re-enrolled in the future. Legally, every three years as an employer you must:

  1. Check whether you have any eligible employees who aren’t in the Scheme
  2. Re-enrol any eligible employees (who could  stop contributions if they choose to).

Woman on a mobile phone

Opting back in

Employees can opt back in at any time. They can ask you to put them back into the Scheme, or log in to their online member account and select ‘Opt in’.

Your contributions will restart and so will theirs.