Wording of pension clauses in employment contract

Manxman_in_exile

Ah - so the Russians are not "providing" the contract, you are?  Personally I'd still want current legal advice if the contract is based on one several years old - no matter who originally drafted it.

(If you used to be a charity chief exec, you would say that!  )

aroominyork

I have another question on this. Initially I will be the only member of staff and on a one year contract while I try to raise the dosh to pay for, among others things, Year 2. Rather than open a workplace pension scheme, can the monthly pension contributions be paid into my SIPP held at Interactive Investor?

Savvy_Sue

aroominyork said:

I have another question on this. Initially I will be the only member of staff and on a one year contract while I try to raise the dosh to pay for, among others things, Year 2. Rather than open a workplace pension scheme, can the monthly pension contributions be paid into my SIPP held at Interactive Investor?

Proper employment advice required. My understanding - which is basic but includes setting up and running AE at work - is that you could opt out, but your employer can't NOT set up AE if the first employee doesn't want to make use of it. So I believe they HAVE to set AE up within three months of you starting, and offer it to you and any future employees.

If you then opt out, what your employer agrees to do about the contributions they now won't be paying into an AE pension is probably negotiable, BUT if you are anticipating a second employee then are they going to want to do something different for them? And what about any subsequent employees? 

Manxman_in_exile

Savvy_Sue said:

aroominyork said:

I have another question on this. Initially I will be the only member of staff and on a one year contract while I try to raise the dosh to pay for, among others things, Year 2. Rather than open a workplace pension scheme, can the monthly pension contributions be paid into my SIPP held at Interactive Investor?

Proper employment advice required. My understanding - which is basic but includes setting up and running AE at work - is that you could opt out, but your employer can't NOT set up AE if the first employee doesn't want to make use of it. So I believe they HAVE to set AE up within three months of you starting, and offer it to you and any future employees.

If you then opt out, what your employer agrees to do about the contributions they now won't be paying into an AE pension is probably negotiable, BUT if you are anticipating a second employee then are they going to want to do something different for them? And what about any subsequent employees? 

But he doesn't want proper employment advice - he wants to DIY.

(I'm beginning to see why my friend expressed doubts about working for charities... )

aroominyork

Savvy_Sue said:

aroominyork said:

I have another question on this. Initially I will be the only member of staff and on a one year contract while I try to raise the dosh to pay for, among others things, Year 2. Rather than open a workplace pension scheme, can the monthly pension contributions be paid into my SIPP held at Interactive Investor?

Proper employment advice required. My understanding - which is basic but includes setting up and running AE at work - is that you could opt out, but your employer can't NOT set up AE if the first employee doesn't want to make use of it. So I believe they HAVE to set AE up within three months of you starting, and offer it to you and any future employees.

If you then opt out, what your employer agrees to do about the contributions they now won't be paying into an AE pension is probably negotiable, BUT if you are anticipating a second employee then are they going to want to do something different for them? And what about any subsequent employees? 

I phoned the Pensions Advisory Service first thing today and they said it is fine for workplace contributions - including the statutory minimums - to be paid into a SIPP. They said nothing about a requirement to set up AE even if it remains unused. Very curious. I will email them to get a reply in writing.

Re future employees, this would just be a short-term arrangement until other employees join - for anyone else I would of course set up AE.