Pension

Lesters Umbrella has set up a Group Personal Pension scheme with The Royal London Group, a leading provider of pensions in the UK.

Our scheme is designed to provide you with a low cost, flexible plan to reflect and adapt to the terms of your contracts and ensure that you can continue to fund for your retirement whilst maximising your tax benefits.

Our scheme meets the new 'auto-enrolment' regulations brought in by government as part of the Pensions Reform.

By redirecting some of the value of your assignment income into this scheme, you will not only save income tax at your highest marginal rate but also benefit from the savings made on employee or employers national insurance. Overall this makes for a very tax efficient scheme.

How does it work?

• We will assess your qualifying earnings and, if you meet the criteria, automatically enrol you into the scheme.
• Once you have been automatically enrolled you can choose to 'opt out' of the scheme if you wish.
• If you don’t meet the criteria for being automatically enrolled into the pension you still have the right to join or be enrolled.

Basic criteria for workers to meet automatic enrolment requirements:

• Are aged 22 or over?
• Are under the state pension age?
• Work or usually work in the UK?
• Earn more than £10,000 per year (tax year 2014-15)?

How much will be contributed to the pension?

We have introduced minimum contributions of 3%, broken down as 2% employer and 1% employee contributions. The government are phasing in increases to the minimum contributions over a period of 6 years.

These contributions are shown clearly on your pay statement.

What if I do not want to be included in the pension scheme?

There are many reasons why you may not want to be included, for example if you have other significant retirement saving plans or you are only planning to work in the UK for a very short-time. We will not actively encourage workers to leave the scheme, however should you wish to you can 'opt out'.  

If you decide that you wish to 'opt out' within a month of your auto enrolment date all the contributions you have already made will be refunded. 

Can I combine my other existing retirement funds?

Due to the highly tax efficient nature of funding into this scheme, combined with the extremely low costs on an ongoing basis, you might wish to consider transferring existing benefits or redirecting existing contributions to this scheme.

Where can I obtain independent advice on my retirement plans and other investments?

Lesters have enlisted the help of Independent Financial Advisors; Millfield Capital to provide our members with tailored financial planning solutions that reflect the unique manner in which you work. Millfield Capital are committed to ensuring that the benefits available to you and the costs incurred in accessing those benefits are kept to a minimum, without a drop in service provided or the benefits on offer.