At a glance
If you leave the Company before age 65, you don’t lose your pension. It will stay in the Plan until you’re ready to take your benefits or transfer your savings into another registered pension arrangement. Your Plan pension will be what’s referred to as ‘deferred’ – you can’t pay any more contributions as a deferred member, but your account remains invested until you take your benefits (or transfer them into another registered pension scheme).
Remember that as a deferred member, you still need to consider your investments regularly to check that they are still appropriate for you. And if you’re thinking of transferring your Plan benefits into a new pension scheme, we recommend that you take advice before doing so.
If you leave within 30 days of joining the Plan, you’ll automatically receive a refund of your contributions, less tax. You’ll then have no benefits in the Plan.
Sometimes, people want to stop paying into the Plan even though they are still employed by the Company. You can do this by completing an opt out form, available on request from the Plan Administrator. Please remember that:
You’ll be losing out on benefits if you opt out. Because of tax relief, every £1 you pay in only costs you 80p (if you’re a basic rate taxpayer), and the Company also pays in around £1.46 (see more details on contributions). So you pay 80p and you get around £2.46 – and your money is invested so the further you are from retirement, the more chance your money has to grow. (And if you pay via salary sacrifice, the cost to you would be even less than 80p.)
You’re also losing out on other benefits such as the generous death in service benefitsYou’re also losing out on other benefits such as the generous death in service benefits
If you do opt out, we’ll automatically re-enrol you into the Plan every three years