Reminder: automatic enrolment onto pension scheme from Friday 1 July 2016

Wednesday, 29 June 2016

It has been three years since the University was obliged by law to start automatically enrolling all eligible workers (those earning more than £833 per month and aged between 22 and State Pension Age) into a qualifying Pension Scheme. 

As part of the legislation, the University is required to ensure that any eligible workers are enrolled back into a pension scheme every three years. This means that anyone who was automatically enrolled, but then chose to opt out of the pension scheme, may be put back into a qualifying Pension Scheme with effect from 1 July 2016. For staff on Grades 1-5, this is the University of Reading Pension Scheme (URPS) and for staff on Grade 6 and above, this is the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).

Everyone who is automatically enrolled into a pension will be contacted directly in writing, either by Friends Life (as the pension scheme administrator for URPS) or by the University pensions team (on behalf of USS), after they have been enrolled. Anyone enrolled into a pension can opt out if they want to and the enrolment notice will give details of how to do this.  Before making a decision to opt out of pension saving, it’s worth remembering that you would miss out on University contributions to your pension and valuable lump sum benefits for your family should you die while a scheme member. In addition, any contributions you make into the scheme will be eligible for tax relief and so the cost may not be as great as you might think.

Please note that you are not able to opt out of the pension scheme until you receive confirmation that you have joined.

You can find more information on Automatic Enrolment from The Pensions Advisory Service website which can be accessed here.  Further information on the University’s pension schemes can be found on the HR website here.  If you have any questions about how automatic enrolment may affect you, please contact the Pensions Office.