Employer Pensions
It is the law now that employers need to provide a pension scheme for employees. The majority of employees are auto-enrolled into a workplace scheme but there are other options available if you are either not eligible for auto-enrolment or the scheme your employer is offering isn’t favourable for you. We can help you decide on the best way to tackle your workplace pension situation and handle any pensions you have from previous employers.
Auto-enrolment is the most common, but there are a few alternative options for employer pensions. Workplace pensions are either final salary schemes (which don’t involve investing the money on the stock exchange, but these are really quite rare now), or money purchase schemes, where both the individual and the employer pay into the scheme and the money is invested in stocks and shares so there is an element of risk but with the individual, the employer and the tax reliefs on the amount the individual pays in, they are often worth opting in to.
Other options include having a group personal person or a stakeholder pension through your workplace which gives you as an individual more control over it as, although your employer chooses the pension provider, you have an individual contract with them. Your pension contributions are taken directly from your wages – which helps with tax as you are taxed on the amount left after the pension contribution is taken – and your employer may or may not pay into it too. Obviously, which scheme your workplace adopts will be down to your employer but we can help advise you on any choices you need to make as well as advising you on what to do with previous workplace pensions from jobs you no longer have.
Risk Warning: A pension is a long term investment. The fund value may fluctuate and can go down. Your eventual income may depend upon the size of the fund at retirement, future interest rates and tax legislation & Auto-enrolment is regulated by The Pensions Regulator
