Help and support
FAQs for Members
Stopping contributions FAQs
Please tell your employer or payroll department so they can look into why this is happening.
If you think your leaving date is missing or incorrect, please send us a copy of your P45 or another document that shows when you left your employer.
You’ll need to post it to: now:pensions, Maclaren House, Talbot Road, Stretford, Manchester, M32 0FP
If you leave your employer, they will tell us your leaving date. We’ll send a statement to your home address showing the value of your pension savings in the Scheme at your leaving date.
If you opt out of the Scheme without leaving your employer, the date you leave will be shown on the Gateway member website. But remember, you may be re-enrolled again in the future.
Either way, once you’ve left the Scheme you won’t pay any more contributions and neither will your employer. Your pension savings will stay invested. We’ll send you a benefit statement every year showing the value of your pension savings. You’ll continue to pay charges on your pension savings and you can find out more about these in our costs and charges booklet.
You can leave your pension savings invested until you retire and take your benefits. Or, you can transfer your pension savings in to now:pensions from another pension provider or out from now:pensions to another pension provider. We don’t charge you to transfer your benefits in or out.
You might want to transfer in or out so you can put all your pension savings together in one place. This could help you maximise your retirement income, as you could get better rates for your retirement benefits if you have one larger pot rather than several small ones.
Transferring out is a serious step and you should look into it carefully. See the Transfers FAQs section for more about transferring out.
Keep your details up to date
It’s always important to keep your details up to date. It’s even more important if you leave your employer, as we need to know where to contact you. You can tell us about changes to your personal details in the following ways:
Online: Use our member contact form for the fastest way to get help with your query.
Email: membersupport@nowpensions.com. To help us help you faster, please quote your full name and address, plus your NOW: Pensions contract ID and National Insurance number in the email.
Call: our member support team on 0330 100 3334 from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. When you contact us, please quote your full name and address, plus your now:pensions contract ID and National Insurance number. We might record your call to help us improve our service to you.
Write to: now:pensions, Maclaren House, Talbot Road, Stretford, Manchester, M32 0FP
Yes. You can opt out at any time after being re-enrolled.
If you opt out within one month of your re-enrolment date, your employer will refund any contributions you paid while you were re-enrolled. Your re-enrolment letter will tell you the deadline for opting out.
If you miss this deadline, your employer can’t refund your contributions. They will stay in the Scheme and be invested until you retire and take your benefits, or transfer them out to another pension provider.
The re-enrolment anniversary and opt-out period are set by the government and enforced by The Pensions Regulator.
You can opt back in at any time simply by asking your employer to put you back into the Scheme. You‘ll restart paying contributions (a minimum of 5% of your qualifying earnings) and your employer will also restart their contributions (a minimum of 3% of qualifying earnings).
You can also opt in using your member account at nowgateway.com. Log in to your account, select your job contract on the dashboard, select ‘Opt in’ and follow the on-screen instructions. You’ll get a letter saying you have successfully opted back into the Scheme.
If you’d prefer to fill in a paper form, contact our member support team on membersupport@nowpensions.com for a copy of the opt-in form, or call our member support team on 0330 100 3334.
Remember to tell your employer so they can restart their contributions to your pension savings (though they’ll get a notification through our employer website).
Important: if you joined the Scheme less than 12 months ago and opted out or left, your employer doesn’t have to put you back into the Scheme.
Even if you miss your opt-out window, you can still leave the Scheme at any time. The quickest way to do this is to log in to your online member account at nowgateway.com, select your job contract on the dashboard, select ‘Opt out’ and follow the on-screen instructions. You’ll get a letter saying you have successfully left the Scheme and you and your employer will stop making pension contributions.
Remember, if you miss the opt out window your employer can’t refund your contributions. They will stay in the Scheme and be invested until you retire and take your benefits, or transfer them out to another pension provider.
In line with government legislation, every employee has one calendar month when they can choose to opt out after being auto enrolled into a workplace pension scheme.
We’ll send you an enrolment notice to tell you that you’re a member of the now:pensions Trust (‘the Scheme’) and the deadline to opt out. You can’t opt out before you’ve received this notice.
During your one-month opt-out window, your online member account will show how many days you have left to opt out.
The quickest way to opt out of the Scheme is using your member account at nowgateway.com/login. You’ll need your now:pensions contract ID and date of birth to activate your account if you haven’t already done this.
Log in to your account, select your job contract on the dashboard, select ‘Opt out’ and follow the on-screen instructions. You’ll get a letter saying you have successfully opted out of the Scheme.
Your employer will refund any contributions you’ve made since the enrolment date as long as you opt out within one month of being enrolled (or re-enrolled) in the Scheme. Your enrolment letter will tell you the deadline for opting out. If you miss this deadline, your employer can’t refund your contributions. They will stay in the Scheme and be invested until you retire and take your benefits or transfer them out to another pension provider.
Don’t miss out
We don’t want you to go but if you do, you’ll miss out on building up pension savings in the Scheme from the money you contribute from your pay. You’ll also miss out on:
- your employer’s contributions – at least 3% of your qualifying earnings, and
- tax relief (if you’re a taxpayer).
If you don’t contribute, you miss out on the extra ‘free money’ you get by being in the Scheme. For example, if you’re a basic-rate taxpayer making minimum contributions, you pay £75 into the Scheme and your employer adds £45. You also save £15 you’d otherwise pay as tax, so that £75 only costs you £60.
In other words, a total of £120 goes into your retirement savings and it only costs you £60. You’ve effectively doubled your pension contribution by being in the Scheme.
Opting out means you leave the Scheme within one month of being enrolled by your employer. You stop making contributions and so does your employer. You don’t build up a pension for yourself in the Scheme.
Your employer will refund any contributions you’ve made since the enrolment date, as long as you opt out within one month of being enrolled (or re-enrolled) in the Scheme.
If you opt out, it’s likely you’ll be re-enrolled in the future. This is because your employer’s legally required to check whether there are any eligible employees who aren’t in the Scheme every three years, and enrol them if they are. You can opt out again if you want to.
The opt-out period is set by the government and enforced by The Pensions Regulator.