How to get an easy pay rise... plus other tips to boost your pension for FREE

MSE_Chris_D

Pensions don't have to be boring, maybe we just need to think about them in a different way. In the more than 20 years I've been writing about pensions, I've heard them described as dull, complex and a rip-off. But what if I told you that having a workplace pension can amount to an easy pay rise? And that there are ways to boost your retirement nest-egg for free – without paying in more of your hard-earned cash?

Read the full blog: How to get an easy pay rise... plus other tips to boost your pension for FREE

Paul_Herring

Getting a workplace pension = a pay rise

Or the pay you would have got, had the employer not had to contribute to your pension, would have been greater. That's exactly what my company did - they had one year where no-one got a pay-rise, precisely because they now have to contribute to a pension.

They simply shifted the pay they normally would have given us, over to the pension.

Now of course not taking those contributions would effectively be a pay cut, but to describe the contributions as a 'pay rise' is not entirely correct (at least not for everyone.)

Dig up lost pensions to boost your pot

How is shifting money from one pension to another "boosting your pension for free" (presuming where you're moving it from won't be charging you for moving it.) You're simply shuffling money around, not increasing the amount there.

To get the full amount of state pension (£168.60 in 2019/20) you need 35 years of NI contributions/credits.

Arguably, only people starting their NI credit records from 2016 need 35 years. Other people may need more, or less.