Stopping contributions

You can ‘opt out’ of your workplace pension with us by stopping your contributions.

 

 

 

You can stop your contributions to the Scheme at any time:

  1. If you opt out within the first month of being enrolled – during the opt-out window – your contributions will be refunded.
  2. If you stop your contributions after one month, your employer can’t refund your contributions.

Any payments you’ve made into your pension must remain invested until your retirement or until you transfer them out. These rules are set by the government and enforced by The Pensions Regulator.

1. Stopping contributions to the Scheme within one month (opting out)

  • If you ask to stop contributing to the Scheme within the first calendar month of being enrolled, you’ll opt out of the Scheme and your employer will refund your contributions.  After that date, your employer can’t refund your contributions. You’ll get an enrolment notice saying you’re a member of the Scheme and giving the deadline to opt out. You can’t opt out until you get this notice. You can opt out using your online member account. Your online member account will show how many days you have left to opt out during your one-month opt-out window.

2. Stopping your contributions after one month

  • After one calendar month has passed you can still stop making contributions – this is called ‘ceasing active membership’. It works in a similar way to opting out but after the one-month opt-out window has expired, you won’t get back any money you’ve put into the Scheme. Your savings will be invested in one of our two funds until you retire. But, you can also transfer these savings to another provider of your choice, if you want to.

Some things to understand before you leave

If you stop contributing to the Scheme, you’ll miss out on:

  • your employer’s contributions – at least 3% of your earnings
  • tax relief
  • building up pension savings in the Scheme.

You could be missing out on ‘extra money’. You can see how this works in the example below.

See how your pension contributions can be doubled by your employer and tax advantages

This is an example. The actual amounts will vary depending on the level of contributions paid by both you and your employer and your rate of tax.

1
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You put £75 into the Scheme, save £15 in tax so it costs you £60

2
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Your employer adds £45 so £120 goes into your retirement savings but it only costs you £60

3
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So, you’ve in fact doubled your contribution by being in the Scheme

Re-enrolment

If you opt out, it’s likely you’ll be re-enrolled in the future. Legally, every three years your employer must:

1) Check whether they have any eligible employees who aren’t in the Scheme

2) Enrol any eligible employees (who could then opt-out if they chose to).

Re-enrolment explained

Opting back in

You can opt back in at any time. Simply ask your employer to put you back into the Scheme, or log in to your online member account and select ‘Opt in’. Your contributions will restart and so will your employer’s contributions.

Opt back in

Leave in two minutes using your online member account

Log in, select your job contract on the dashboard and select ‘Opt out’.

Please note: If you leave within the first month you are ‘opting out’ and your contributions will be refunded. If you leave after one month you are ‘leaving’ and your employer can’t refund your contributions, they remain as part of your pension savings until you retire. This is part of the government’s rules and regulations around workplace pensions.

Opt out or leave now