Company pension

dragon2121

I've been at my company for a year and whilst finishing paying off some debt and student loand deductions I opted out of joining the company pension fund. My student loan deductions have now finished and thus I was going to now join the fund but I have just received a letter stating that having had an audit review I can still join the fund in the future but the company will no longer make contributions! Is this normal practice, is there anything I can do about it?

MrChips

I am assuming this is a defined contribution arrangement. Do you know if company contributions are being withdrawn for all staff, or only for new contributors to the pension scheme? What were the previous company contributions worth?

Either way, other than negotiation, there is unlikely to be much you can do, unfortunately. There are several surveys around which show what average company contributions are (about 6-7% I think) - you could try presenting these to your HR department to show them they are out of line with market practice. It may also help if you know what pension contributions their competitors make. This is effectively a pay cut (albeit of pay you weren't taking advantage of as yet) - is your company going to be compensating this pay cut in other areas? Extra holiday etc?

Is your company in financial trouble, or in an industry severely hit by the recession? If so, its hand may be tied. Does it have a union which can negotiate on your behalf, and of your colleagues?

If the company won't budge, your only option is to vote with your feet!

dunstonh

A lot of schemes have rules on when you can and cannot join. Also, schemes can also be changed for new members. So, delaying could cause you to miss out on a better scheme.

This audit review; was if specifically for you or was it a review of the overall pension scheme? If the latter, was it for all members of the pension or just new joiners?

dragon2121

Thanks for the responses, I've sent an email to the HR team to aske them some further questions as posed in the responses so will revert back shortly.

Thanks