Government Pension Scheme

xylophone

It seems to me that the only way in which you could be a member of a scheme related to a religious body would be to be actually employed by that body? In which case, it hardly seems logical to have reservations about joining its pension scheme?

Malthusian

Presumably the company you work for isn't overtly religious enough for you to object to working for them. And it therefore seems unlikely they'd insist on paying into an overtly religious pension scheme.

Even if the scheme does have religious characteristics, it is probably as PensionTech described - the worst that can happen is that you will lose the returns and diversification that comes from investing in alcohol, tobacco etc. If it is an auto-enrolment pension scheme it would be illegal for the scheme to invest your money in say building churches or statues of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (unless you specifically asked them to), because it would not be an appropriate and diversified allocation of members' assets.

If despite all that there is some objectionably religious element to it you should still take the free money. Every pound they pay into your pension scheme is a pound you can spend on booze, loose women and bacon sandwiches.

dunstonh

Auto enrolment is not a government pension scheme.

My question is, am I allowed to change scheme and my employer still has to pay into it? Or am I stuck with the one that my employer has chosen?

as long as the scheme is auto enrolment compliant, then they have met the rules and do not have to offer you an alternative.

There are several schemes that could have religion in their name. I believe the only religion that has limitations is Islam. There are AE compliant sharia schemes available though.

cptruff

Malthusian wrote: »

Presumably the company you work for isn't overtly religious enough for you to object to working for them. And it therefore seems unlikely they'd insist on paying into an overtly religious pension scheme.

Even if the scheme does have religious characteristics, it is probably as PensionTech described - the worst that can happen is that you will lose the returns and diversification that comes from investing in alcohol, tobacco etc. If it is an auto-enrolment pension scheme it would be illegal for the scheme to invest your money in say building churches or statues of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (unless you specifically asked them to), because it would not be an appropriate and diversified allocation of members' assets.

If despite all that there is some objectionably religious element to it you should still take the free money. Every pound they pay into your pension scheme is a pound you can spend on booze, loose women and bacon sandwiches.

That last paragraph has summed it up perfectly!

Thanks again for all the replies!

dunstonh

And remember you can have as many pensions as you like. So, pay in the minimum to get the most "free money" from the employer and then use a separate individual personal pensions for any extra that you want to pay.