Company reduced payments without asking me ?

trevjl

I had the shielding letter at Christmas and my local boss said the company were furloughing people that were shielding, so I could if I wanted. I bit his hand off, ideal for my trial retirement, never having had more than a 3 week period off for 42 years working. (loving it!!).
Anyway, January wage slip showed a different pension contribution form both myself and the company. I questioned this locally, but as it was  a month of bit holiday, bit sick, bit furlough, we agreed to wait until Februarys and see what it was as a full furlough month.
February again shows a different amounts. This time it went to payrole for an explanation. They have said that because my furlough pay (the maximum) was lower than my average that my pension payments are calculated from (previous years pay), they worked it out on the average as if I was on the furlough pay all the time, hence the lower pension payments for both myself and the company. As I might want to pay less due to lower wages and I could go back to normal if I wanted.
I have told then to put it back to normal next payday, as why would I want to miss out on the companys' higher payment. They had no authorisation to do this, and did not even ask ( I realise it may suit some people).
My question after the rather long rant is, Can they do this ?

TVAS

Dunno mate.

You need to provide the definition of pensionable pay that is used to calculate employer and employee contributions. This is contained in the scheme booklet which you should have or you need to get the scheme booklet that applies to your membership. Often this can be accessed online. If it is a percentage of salary as your salary has reduced it follows that pension payments reduce.

If you have worked for 42 years you must be coming up to retirement, assuming you have had pension provision covering these 42 years does it really matter that out of 504 months that 2 months have lower pension contributions?

trevjl

It does matter as a matter of principle. If you worked for my company you would understand where I am coming from.