Privacy policy

Who are we?

This privacy policy describes how NOW: Pensions Ltd (‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’) and NOW: Pension Trustee Ltd (“Trustee”) both of 6 Bevis Marks, London, EC3A 7BA, collects and processes personal data and sensitive personal data related to our website www.nowpensions.com and the services we provide.

This privacy policy applies to all members (both active and deferred), former members, employers, and beneficiaries. It also applies to visitors to our website and other individuals who contact us or interact with us through our website, competitions, surveys and in other ways, such as advisors, payroll bureau contacts and job applicants.

(As relevant) employers and the Trustee will process your personal data and sensitive personal data as data controllers; and we will process your personal data and sensitive personal data as data controller if we are required to undertake such processing for our own independent purposes, including for the purposes of providing any specialist services to the employer or the Trustee and to the extent necessary for us to comply with our statutory role as scheme administrator, and in all other cases we will be a data processor acting on behalf of the employer and / or the Trustee.

Where you are a member, an employer or a contact acting on behalf of an employer or relevant third party, the contract we enter into with you, and / or Gateway and/or the member portal data protection notice, will set out further detail about who controls your information and other relevant matters. It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any privacy or fair processing notice we may provide from time-to-time so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy policy supplements other notices and privacy policies and is not intended to override them.

Who is the data controller?

Who is the data controller varies depending on the purposes of the processing.

Where we are providing the Employer Services, the employer (our client) is the data controller, and we are the data processor.

Where the Trustee is providing DC Pension Services, the Trustee is the data controller. Except where we are acting in our statutory role as Scheme Administrator under the Finance Act 2004.

Where we are acting in our own rights for our own business purposes; for example, for the processing of client data, we are data controller.

How we use your information

We and the Trustee are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This privacy policy (together with the terms of use) sets out the basis on which we and the Trustee process your personal data which you have provided on our website or in respect of other communications with us. It provides you with certain information that we are obliged to make you aware of under data protection laws.

If you have a contract with us or the Trustee, please refer to the contract for more information on data protection and how we and the Trustee use your personal data. Please read the following carefully to understand how your personal data may be used and what your rights are.

Data: sources, what is collected and what do we do with it?

Data is gathered from different sources and used in different ways depending on who you are and how you interact with us. Please refer to the appropriate sub-heading below to find out more.

Visitors to our website
When you visit our website www.nowpensions.com we may collect information about your computer or other device including your IP address, operating system and browser type, for the purposes of system administration and making website and product /services improvements. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns and we do not use it to identify any individual. We may also collect details of your visits to our site including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data and the resources that you access. We use this to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you.

We also collect information through the contact forms on our website, and also information that you post online when you contact us on social media. Information may also be collected from cookies, please refer to the cookies section below for further information.

People who call our helpline
When you telephone us or receive a telephone call from us, we may record the calls for training and quality purposes. The legal basis for processing your information in this manner is legitimate interest. Certain telephone calls are received by our third-party administrator on our behalf. We may also use Calling Line Identification information and where we do, this information will be used to provide our services and offer assistance in order to improve our efficiency.

People or organisations who contact us
When you contact us or obtain services from us, we may save your details in order that we might provide you with information you have requested from us or which we feel may interest you, where it is in our legitimate interest or where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes.

Competitions
From time-to-time we may run a competition, in which case we will be named as the promoter of the competition. Please refer to the competition terms and conditions for specific information on how we will use your personal data in relation to the specific competition you enter. Any personal information provided by you in the competition entry may be held and used by us or our agents and suppliers in order to administer the competition in accordance with the competition terms.

Surveys
If we have previously had contact with you, we may get in touch from time to time to ask you to complete a survey which we will use for research purposes. Where we send surveys to you, you do not have to respond to them. You can also let us know if you would not like to be contacted in this way at our address above or whenever you communicate with us in the usual course. Surveys may be hosted by third-party service providers, please refer to any privacy information contained on the survey invite. Any personal information provided by you in the survey entry may be held and used by us or our relevant agents and suppliers in order to manage the survey. Where we state the survey you enter is anonymous, no identifiable personal data will be included in the final survey report and where applicable, we will use data in an anonymised and aggregate format.

NOW: Pensions’ services
The information required in order to provide our pensions services, may be provided as appropriate through contact with our help centre, on our website www.nowpensions.com or via the employer or member portal. The information may include family details, lifestyle and social circumstances, employment details, financial details, business activities, health details and other personal details relevant to the provision of pensions services. We, and the Trustee, together with our group companies, third-party administrators and services providers, process this information in order to provide our pensions services and to facilitate your access, provide resources to you, contact you about your pension scheme and to notify you about changes to our services.

Further information if you have a Pension with us

Information for Employers
If you are an employer who has signed up to the NOW: Pensions Scheme, please refer to your Participation Agreement with us and Gateway for more information on data protection. As an employer you will provide us with your personal data or personal data relating to individuals in the scheme on your behalf; and you will also provide personal data and may provide sensitive personal data relating to your employees and workers to us and the Trustee. You and the Trustee will process personal data and sensitive personal data as data controllers, we may process personal data and sensitive personal data as data controller or in certain circumstances as data processor acting on behalf of the employer and/or the Trustee.

Information for Members
If you are an employee or worker whose employer has signed up to the NOW: Pensions Scheme, please refer to the data protection notice on your member portal for more information on data protection. Your personal data or sensitive personal data may be provided by you or your employer to us and the Trustee. Your employer and the Trustee process your personal data and sensitive personal data as data controllers, we may process your personal data and sensitive personal data as data controller or in certain circumstances as data processor.

Information for beneficiaries
If you are a beneficiary nominated by a member under a NOW: Pensions Scheme, your personal data will have been provided to us by the member. Most of the time, we only hold basic contact details for you. Then, when it becomes relevant, we may request additional information from you or the member such as bank account details or source other important information to enable us to pay the entitlement to you or assess your eligibility.

You can contact Member Support at membersupport@nowpensions.com or visit our website www.nowpensions.com for additional information.

Why do we use your information?

The main reasons that we and the Trustee, together with our third-party administrators and service providers, process your information are for the purposes of:

(A) Legal and regulatory compliance This includes where we are required, permitted or authorised to process your information based on a legal obligation, including applicable laws relating to employment, pensions, tax, establishing, exercising or defending legal claims, and reporting to or responding to requests from regulators such as The Pensions Regulator.
(B) Contract performance and management This includes where processing of your information is necessary to perform an agreement to provide pensions services to the employer and for the benefit of its employees (including beneficiaries), including to facilitate your access, provide resources to you, contact you about the pension scheme and to notify you about changes to our services.
(C) Improving our products / services This includes where the processing is necessary to enable us to gain insight into your use of our services and information systems (including Gateway and the member portal and the NOW: Pensions’ website) in order to make improvements to these, so that we can enhance your experience of using our services.
(D) Managing operations This includes the normal business practices related to our day-to-day business activities, including internal administration within our corporate group, corporate governance, effective systems and process management, planning and budgeting, financial management (including for the benefit of members), resource management, mergers and acquisitions, including due diligence and audits, internal auditing, supplier management and complaints management.
(E) Managing security and preventing fraud or unlawful activities This includes securing our IT network and systems (including Gateway) and company information, preventing fraud or other unlawful activities such as money laundering, verification and credit risk reduction, processing carried out in accordance with regulatory guidance and reporting possible criminal acts.
(F) Marketing This includes where processing of your information is necessary to provide you with carefully selected marketing about our products and services (in accordance with legal requirements and your preferences).
(G) Research This includes the requirements placed on us and the Trustee to develop a Scheme that aims at meeting, on an on-going basis, the needs of its members, participating employers, and intermediaries. In order to do so, we and the Trustee may from time-to-time conduct research and/or surveys which may require the use of your personal information. These activities may also include us sharing your personal data with government bodies or departments, as well as with third-party research partners (such as universities, think tanks, market research agencies, survey providers etc.).

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data and will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will process your personal data:

  • to comply with our legal obligations,
  • for the performance of a contract with you or for your benefit or to take steps at your request prior to entering into this contract, or
  • for the purposes of our and the Trustee’s respective legitimate interests in ensuring effective operational management and internal administration, network and information security, prevention of fraud and other unlawful activities, research, reporting of criminal acts, verification and credit risk reduction, compliance with regulatory guidance, establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, website, product / service improvement and for direct marketing.

We may from time-to-time collect sensitive personal data, such as health data, from members. Further information is provided in relation to this in the data protection notices on the employer and member portals.

Data matching

We may carry out data matching to verify that the information we hold on you is accurate and up to date. Data matching involves comparing sets of data, such as information contained in different records against other records held either by us or by another body to see how far they match. The data sets usually include personal information. We and the Trustee have a legal obligation to ensure that the information we hold is accurate and will, therefore, process your data in this manner only to comply with our legal obligations or where another applicable legal basis allows us to do so.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law, or where another applicable legal basis allows us to do so.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies when you access our website, which allow the website to recognise your device and store some information about your preferences or past actions. This helps us to provide you with a good user experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookie policy.

Where we store your personal data

We and the Trustee will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is adequately protected and processed in accordance with data protection laws and this privacy policy. The data that we collect from you will primarily be stored and processed within the United Kingdom. The data that we collect from you may, however, also be transferred to, stored and processed at a destination outside the United Kingdom by us, the Trustee, our group companies, or service providers (see below).

Any transfer of your personal data to a third country or international organisation outside of the United Kingdom will only ever take place where (i) adequate data protection measures are in place for the destination country, as determined by the ICO or (ii) where ICO-approved model clauses are in place between us and any joint controller or processor.

Security

Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to safeguard against the risks that are presented by personal data processing, such as accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed. All our employees and any third-parties we engage to process data are obliged to respect the confidentiality of such data provided to us and as required under applicable data protection or other legislation.

However, where you have a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential and it is essential that you do not share your password with anyone.

Disclosure of your information

We, the Trustee, our third-party administrators and service providers have access to your personal data for the purposes stated above. We share information within our corporate group, as necessary for the effective provision of pension services, and for internal administration, corporate governance and legal and regulatory compliance purposes. For further information about our corporate structure, see our trustees and our board on our website.

The recipients of your personal data outside our group companies may include (as relevant to the services being provided) the following:

  • our third-party pensions administrator;
  • IT providers (including suppliers of systems, software, maintenance, rectification and hosting services);
  • marketing services and solutions providers;
  • third-party solutions that support our customer relationship management systems, complaints processes and similar;
  • government bodies or departments, as well as with third-party research partners (such as universities, think tanks, market research agencies, survey providers etc.);
  • from time-to-time, specialist consultants (but usually on an anonymised and aggregated basis) and providers of investigation services in relation to “gone away” members; and/ or
  • providers of data cleanse services to improve the quality and accuracy of the data held.
  • providers of additional pension finder and consolidation services that members may opt to avail of

Recipients of your personal data outside our group companies may also include credit reference agencies, identity verification and forwarding providers or similar to carry out address verification or address forwarding checks. The checks are carried out in order to verify your current address or email address. Address verification is carried out electronically and will not be visible to lenders and will not affect your credit rating.

Where it is in our legitimate interest or where we have appropriate consent from you, we may use your data (or permit selected third-parties to use your data), to provide you with information about goods and services which may be of interest to you and we (or the third-party) may contact you about these by post, telephone or by email. If you do not want us to use your data in this way, or to pass your details on to third-parties for marketing purposes, please unsubscribe to the relevant marketing. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at mktoptout@nowpensions.com.

Additionally, we or the Trustee may disclose your personal information:

  • if we, the Trustee or our group companies sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets;
  • in order to enforce or apply our terms of use and any other agreements you may have with us; or
  • if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to protect our rights, property, or safety or that of our customers or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of verification, fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

How long do we retain your data?

We and the Trustee retain your personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which this is being processed. Where the purpose for our processing your personal data is directly linked to your pension, or the provision of a pension to your employees, we retain personal data for a period of 15 years from the date that your or your employees’ pension benefits have been extinguished (i.e. fully withdrawn or transferred out), to the extent this is required in order to manage our and the Trustees obligations in respect of your pension. Otherwise, we retain personal data in accordance with statutory retention periods, or for so long as necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Your rights

The following section explains your rights. The various rights are not absolute and each is subject to certain exceptions or qualifications.

We will grant your request only to the extent that it follows from our assessment of your request that we are allowed and required to do so under data protection laws. Nothing in this privacy policy is intended to provide you with rights beyond or in addition to your rights as a data subject under data protection laws.

Rights What does this mean?
1. Right to be informed You have the right to be provided with clear, transparent and easily understandable information about how we use your information and your rights. This is why we are providing you with the information in this privacy policy.
2. Right of access You have the right to obtain a copy of your information (if we are processing it), and certain other information (similar to that provided in this privacy policy) about how it is used. This is so you are aware and can check that we are using your information in accordance with data protection laws. We can refuse to provide information where to do so may reveal personal data about another person or would otherwise negatively impact another person’s rights.
3. Right to rectification You can ask us to take reasonable measures to correct your information if it is inaccurate or incomplete. E.g., if we have the wrong date of birth or name for you.
4. Right to erasure This is also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’ and, in simple terms, enables you to request the deletion or removal of your information where there is no compelling reason for us to keep using it or its use is unlawful. This is not a general right to erasure; there are exceptions, e.g., where we need to use the information in defence of a legal claim or where the processing is required or necessary due to a legal obligation.
5. Right to restrict processing You have rights to ‘block’ or suppress further use of your information when we are assessing a request for rectification or as an alternative to erasure. When processing is restricted, we can still store your information, but may not use it further. We keep lists of people who have asked for further use of their information to be ‘blocked’ to make sure the restriction is respected in future.
6. Right to data portability You have rights to obtain and reuse certain personal data for your own purposes across different organisations. E.g., if you decide to move services, this enables you to move, copy or transfer your information easily between different service providers (or directly to yourself) safely and securely, without affecting its usability. This only applies to your information that you have provided that is being processed with your consent (if relevant) or to perform a contract that you are a party to, which is being processed by automated means. We do not expect this right to be relevant in the context of the services that we provide.
7. Right to object You have the right to object to certain types of processing, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time insofar as that processing takes place for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third-party such as the Trustee. We will be allowed to continue to process the information if we can demonstrate “compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override [your] interests, rights and freedoms” or we need this for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. The consequences will depend on the nature and scope of your objection and how and why we are using the information. In some circumstances, this may mean that we may need to modify our processing activities or how we interact with you in a way that overcomes the objection, or change the way in which we provide services to your employer or for your benefit, or stop providing part or all of the pensions services. In others, we may be entitled to keep processing the personal data despite your objection or at least do so in a limited way, such as where we are obliged to retain information for audit purposes. (We will always need to stop direct marketing within a reasonable time if you object to this (and note that this is only relevant to individual employers).) When we respond to your request, we will write to you and tell you where this is the case.
8. Right to withdraw consent We may ask for your consent to the processing of personal data. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

Third party links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third-parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

Updates to our privacy policy

We may update or amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to comply with law or to meet changing business requirements. Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page. Please check back frequently to see any update or changes to our privacy policy. This Privacy Policy was last updated in August 2023.

Your duty to inform us of any changes

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

How to contact us

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to legal@nowpensions.com. For member or employer service queries please go to www.nowpensions.com.

We have appointed a data protection officer who can be contacted at DPO@nowpensions.com if you want to make a request to exercise any of your rights above or you have any concerns about the way in which we have handled your personal data.

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.