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.