Yep, we know you’ve got to take the bins out. And that basket of dirty clothes won’t wash itself. But spend a few minutes looking at your pension now, and your future self will seriously thank you.
We’re here to support the Pay Your Pension Some Attention campaign, helping savers know what pension money they’ve got, where their pensions are and how they can keep track of them easily.
After all, there’s no time like the present to give your pension a little bit of love!
Pay your pension some attention
- Log in to your workplace pension
Sounds like a no brainer, but logging in to your account is a big step.
If you have a pension with NOW: Pensions, you can check on your pension savings by logging into Gateway. It’s easy to log in here: nowgateway.com.
Try to review your pension regularly so you know if you’re on track to get the income you want in retirement.
If you’re logging in to Gateway for the first time, you can activate your account with your date of birth and your NOW: Pensions contract ID. You can find this on emails we’ve sent to you in the past.
If you have any questions, fill in our contact form at contactpensionsadmin.com/nowpensions.
That’s step 1 done!
- Now make sure we’ve got your personal email address
Your pension account will be set up with your work email address. This is where you will receive your activation email containing your NOW: Pensions contract ID. We suggest you change this to a personal email address.
Using a personal email means if you leave your job, we’ll still be able to send you updates about your pension. Remember, your pension is yours for life.
From your Gateway homepage, click on your pensions contract ID. On the personal details page, change your email address.
Remember, once saved, this will be the email address you use to log in to Gateway.
- Check how much you’ve got in your pension
You may already know you pay a percentage of your salary into your pension. It’s good to understand how much you’ve got in your pension account, and what this could pay you when you take your pension.
You can see your overall fund value on your Gateway homepage. This shows how much your pension is worth. We update your fund value each week.
This pension calculator from MoneyHelper can help you understand how much you could get from your pension.
As well as being able to check your pension online, you’ll get an annual benefit statement each year, which gives you an update on your pension savings, including how much has been paid into your pension in the last year and what this could pay you when you take your pension.
- Update who gets your pension if you die
If you die before you take your pension money, who gets it? You can ask the Scheme Trustee (who looks after our pension scheme for members like you) to pay the money to whomever you chose by filling in an expression of wish form, naming the people you want to get the money.
It can be one person, more than one person, or a charity. It’s a good idea to update your form even if your wishes haven’t changed. The more up-to-date your form is, the more our Trustee can trust it’s what you want to happen.
The Trustee has the final say over who gets your pension savings. This means they can be paid without inheritance tax. The Trustee doesn’t have to follow your wishes, but it usually will unless there’s a good reason not to.
- Trace lost pensions
Have you lost a pension? Maybe you don’t even know! It’s estimated there could be over £19 billion sitting in forgotten pension accounts. National Pension Tracing Day, on Sunday 30 October this year, was set up to help people find their lost pensions. Could some of that lost money be yours?
If you’ve lost track of any pensions you can:
- go through old paperwork to find the name of your old pension provider. Email them to find out more about your savings – they’ll be pleased to hear from you!
- contact the company you used to work for to track down a lost workplace pension
- try the government’s free Pension Tracing Service
If you do have old pensions you’re not paying into, watch out for charges still coming out of them. Bringing old pensions into your current pension could save you money, as you’ll only have one lot of charges. We don’t charge you to transfer other pensions in. Talk to us about transferring your pensions.
That’s it – you’re done! Thanks for paying your pension some attention. If only shrinking the washing pile was this easy…
We’re supporting 2023’s Pension Awareness campaign run by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA).
Sign up for free live shows taking place from 11-15 September 2023 at pensionawarenessday.com
NP/B0037/09/2023
