Pension contributions from temporary job

armour999

Hi all,

I have been retired for about 3 years and am about to take a temporary job (5 or 6 weeks' duration) with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as a Census Officer. I don't actually need the money at present as I have more than sufficient income (approx £30K/year) from a Defined Benefit pension and property income, so I would like to pay as much as possible into a pension scheme. There may be a possibility of getting the ONS to do this on my behalf but, as yet, I have had no reply to my inquiries.

I was wondering if I could pay some, or preferably all, of my income from the temporary job into an (untouched) Standard Life Defined Contribution pension plan I have?

If so, what would be the best way to go about this?

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Dazed_and_C0nfused

You cannot pay all of it into a relief at source pension.

If you aren't constrained by the MPAA then you could pay 80% of it and the basic rate tax relief makes this a gross contribution equal to your pay.

I very much doubt your employer will pay it all direct from your pay as they would be breaking NMW regulations.

Albermarle

If you have taxable earned income then you can add this to a pension and get tax relief on it .
So if you earn £2000, then you could add £1600 and SL will add £400 tax relief.
However even without any earned income you can £2880 per tax year to a pension anyway and £720 will be added in tax relief.
Should not be a problem to do this via your SL pension . Just add the money online by debit card.

armour999

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

You cannot pay all of it into a relief at source pension.

If you aren't constrained by the MPAA then you could pay 80% of it and the basic rate tax relief makes this a gross contribution equal to your pay.

I very much doubt your employer will pay it all direct from your pay as they would be breaking NMW regulations.

Thanks D&C but what's MPAA and NMW?

Albermarle said:

If you have taxable earned income then you can add this to a pension and get tax relief on it .
So if you earn £2000, then you could add £1600 and SL will add £400 tax relief.
However even without any earned income you can £2880 per tax year to a pension anyway and £720 will be added in tax relief.
Should not be a problem to do this via your SL pension . Just add the money online by debit card.

Thanks Albermarle. This IS interesting. I'm not sure how SL would add the tax I will have paid though. Wouldn't I need to claim the tax back through my tax return?

Can I really put £2880 per year from my property income into a pension? I had no idea. I've missed out for the past three years.

In order to take advantage this tax year, I guess I should pay £2880 in before April 5th

Dazed_and_C0nfused

MPAA is Money Purchase Annual Allowance

https://www.pruadviser.co.uk/knowledge-literature/knowledge-library/money-purchase-annual-allowance-mpaa/

NMW is national minimum wage.
https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/employment/what-national-minimum-wage

The income tax you pay and amount of tax relief added to a relief at source pension are completely unconnected.

Qualifying relief at source pension contributions have basic rate tax relief added irrespective of how much tax you pay.  If your only tsxable income was say salary of £12,500 you could pay £10,000 into a relief at source pension and the pension company adds 25% giving you a pension fund of £12,500 despite you not paying any tax.

If you haven't had any earnings in the current tax year (pension income isn't earnings for pension contribution purposes) then you are limited to contributing £3,600 (£2,880 that you pay plus £720 basic rate tax relief).

You have to include details of relief at source pension contributions on your Self Assessment return however unless you are an intermediate or higher rate payer it won't make any difference to your personal income tax liability.

Marcon

armour999 said:

Hi all,

I have been retired for about 3 years and am about to take a temporary job (5 or 6 weeks' duration) with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as a Census Officer. I don't actually need the money at present as I have more than sufficient income (approx £30K/year) from a Defined Benefit pension and property income, so I would like to pay as much as possible into a pension scheme. There may be a possibility of getting the ONS to do this on my behalf but, as yet, I have had no reply to my inquiries.

I was wondering if I could pay some, or preferably all, of my income from the temporary job into an (untouched) Standard Life Defined Contribution pension plan I have?

If so, what would be the best way to go about this?

Thanks for reading,

Chris

These temporary census-related roles don't come under auto-enrolment regulations and no pension contributions are payable (although you do get paid holiday), either by the ONS or via salary sacrifice. With so many temps, and payment being made weekly, it simply isn't practicable.

Albermarle

 I'm not sure how SL would add the tax I will have paid though
They will add it automatically . It is up to you not to make higher contributions than you are allowed. Otherwise they will add too much tax relief and at some point you will have to pay it back.