Multiple jobs, workplace pension and salary sacrifice. Help!

Rositree

Hi, 

I work as a personal care assistant for 3 different employers (job breakdown at the bottom), I would rather all my contributions went into the same pot, the payroll company have advised me that they can only manage payments into NEST as that is the local authority's preferred provider (and the LA provide all the money for the care package ie my wages). Job 1 employer manages his employee pension scheme himself and this is why he has been able to choose  a different provider. From what I can tell people's pension has lower fees than NEST and the website is far more user friendly,  ideally I'd like to transfer all of my NEST contributions into there. Transferring the pot is easy enough to do, but only if there are no further funds being paid in (from what the payroll company has said it's likely that Job 3 will also use NEST) there doesn't seem to be any way of getting future payments changed to be paid in to people's pension instead of NEST.

First question: Do I have no choice at all over which scheme is used for my pension? Any suggestions on how to manage this situation? 
Second question: If I continue with all 3 jobs, Job 3 uses NEST also and both Job 2 and 3 (combined earnings ~22k) each only pay contributions on earnings above £6240, is there any way I can claim for this difference in lost contributions (ie I'd only be receiving employer's contribution on ~10k (22k - (2x6240) instead of 16k if I earned 22k in one job), tax, NI relief and top up my own contributions too? 

Also, I need to up my pension contributions (I'm 34, NEST fund value £1400, people's pension value £650, plus a couple of other pots I can consolidate from previous jobs).
I'm doing OK financially, save at least £500 a month, have ~15k in savings (partly earmarked for buying some land and starting a business in the next 5-10 years) and some of that could and should definitely be going into a pension. I just have no idea where to go with it. I assume I could increase my monthly contributions through payroll but am not sure, ditto with salary sacrifice (I get the impression that the payroll company just like to do the bare minimum and keep things simple) and I gather workplace pensions generally aren't the best performing thing out there.
Would it be easier to just forego the 3% employer's contribution with NEST and open a private pension plan? Can I still apply for tax and NI relief if I do it privately? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I normally have my head screwed on with finances, but pensions are just blowing my mind!

Thanks for any insights 😊

Jobs breakdown
All of these positions are funded by the local authority and I'm not self-employed by any of them. Conveniently, they all use the same organisation for their payroll.

Job 1- avg earnings ~10k gross

 - people's pension

 - employer contributions 3% of total earnings 

Job 2 - avg earnings ~12.5k gross

 - NEST pension

 - employer contributions 3% of earnings above £6240 allowance 

Job 3 - avg earnings ~9.4k gross

 - have only just started this job so not sure on details yet. 

 - intention is to quit Job 2 and replace with Job 3 after probation completed and increase hours so avg earnings ~12.8k

bolwin1

Hi,

I can't get multi-quote to work so here goes...

First question: Do I have no choice at all over which scheme is used for my pension?

No - this is up to the employer. Very few, if any would give you the choice. If everyone wanted different pension providers, it would quickly become a significant overhead for the employer to manage. You should have choice over which funds are invested in within the pension, but not which pension provider. 

Second question: If I continue with all 3 jobs, Job 3 uses NEST also and both Job 2 and 3 (combined earnings ~22k) each only pay contributions on earnings above £6240, is there any way I can claim for this difference in lost contributions (ie I'd only be receiving employer's contribution on ~10k (22k - (2x6240) instead of 16k if I earned 22k in one job), tax, NI relief and top up my own contributions too? 

No, unfortunately each job is treated separately. 

Would it be easier to just forego the 3% employer's contribution with NEST and open a private pension plan? Can I still apply for tax and NI relief if I do it privately? 

You wouldn't get any NI relief as this is only obtained through salary sacrifice & a private pension plan is not salary sacrifice. You would get tax relief. I don't see the point of foregoing the 3% employers contribution though, that would be just wasting money. 

You could also set up a SIPP & pay money into that. Unfortunately neither the peoples pension nor nest allow partial transfers out, so you can't transfer them into it until you've stopped contributing.

Rositree

Cheers, I thought that would be the case (re: providers) but worth checking as that'd be the most convenient option. 

It seems like my best option is to keep the workplace ones ticking along on the minimum and set up another private pension I can save in to properly and transfer the other pots in as and when changing jobs.

Thanks for your help 

Albermarle

Rositree said:

Cheers, I thought that would be the case (re: providers) but worth checking as that'd be the most convenient option. 

It seems like my best option is to keep the workplace ones ticking along on the minimum and set up another private pension I can save in to properly and transfer the other pots in as and when changing jobs.

Thanks for your help 

That is probably the best bet , or alternatively consolidate the pensions into one of the existing ones , either an existing employer one or an ex employer one . A completely new pension may not be necessary.

Rositree

Albermarle said

That is probably the best bet , or alternatively consolidate the pensions into one of the existing ones , either an existing employer one or an ex employer one . A completely new pension may not be necessary.

Really? If I can't close/transfer out either of the current workplace pensions whilst there are still payments going in, how would I consolidate? Seeing as I'm still working both jobs part time I don't see how I can do that. Would be very happy to know if there is a way! Thanks 

Albermarle

Rositree said:

Albermarle said

That is probably the best bet , or alternatively consolidate the pensions into one of the existing ones , either an existing employer one or an ex employer one . A completely new pension may not be necessary.

Really? If I can't close/transfer out either of the current workplace pensions whilst there are still payments going in, how would I consolidate? Seeing as I'm still working both jobs part time I don't see how I can do that. Would be very happy to know if there is a way! Thanks 

You mentioned about the possibility of changing jobs in the future, in that case my comments are valid.
Currently consolidation is probably not possible .