14% salary contributions?

littlemiss19

Hi, 

I work on a temporary contract each summer earning around £4k to £5k. I also have my main job where I earn more than £10k p.a.  Recently, I have decided to learn more about pensions and have just found out that I paid 14% of my gross salary from my summer contract (only) to pensions in 2024 . My payslips from this contract state two employee pension contribution amounts - one to NEST and another is just 'EE pens'. I have written to the firm to find out more about this.

I received information about the NEST pension in 2023 but nothing about any other pension.  The business changed payslip providers and has told me to contact HMRC to get payslips for 2023 and 2022 - is this legal? It seems it will be difficult to do this as HMRC are very busy this time of year. 

My questions are;

I would like to opt out of the pensions from the contract as I have a defined benefit pension from my main job. Ideally, I would like to get some/all of my contributions back. If I am earning less than £10k p.a from the contract (but more than this in my main job) can I opt out of the contract pension schemes as I should not have been auto-enrolled?


I realise I have missed the one month notice period to opt out of  NEST, but if there is no evidence of the firm sending me details of the other pension, do I have the right to request the employee contributions be returned to me?

Also, if the firm did not inform me how much the employer contributions would be, does this give me grounds to try to get any further requests for a return of the NEST pension employee contributions?

Thanks,
Little miss

Marcon

littlemiss19 said:

Hi, 

I work on a temporary contract each summer earning around £4k to £5k. I also have my main job where I earn more than £10k p.a.  Recently, I have decided to learn more about pensions and have just found out that I paid 14% of my gross salary from my summer contract (only) to pensions in 2024 . My payslips from this contract state two employee pension contribution amounts - one to NEST and another is just 'EE pens'. I have written to the firm to find out more about this.

I received information about the NEST pension in 2023 but nothing about any other pension.  The business changed payslip providers and has told me to contact HMRC to get payslips for 2023 and 2022 - is this legal? It seems it will be difficult to do this as HMRC are very busy this time of year. 

My questions are;

I would like to opt out of the pensions from the contract as I have a defined benefit pension from my main job. Ideally, I would like to get some/all of my contributions back. If I am earning less than £10k p.a from the contract (but more than this in my main job) can I opt out of the contract pension schemes as I should not have been auto-enrolled?


I realise I have missed the one month notice period to opt out of  NEST, but if there is no evidence of the firm sending me details of the other pension, do I have the right to request the employee contributions be returned to me?

Also, if the firm did not inform me how much the employer contributions would be, does this give me grounds to try to get any further requests for a return of the NEST pension employee contributions?

Thanks,
Little miss

Excellent that you've decided to learn more about pensions!

14% sounds quite high. Are you sure that you were enrolled into two pension schemes, NEST being one and the other 'EE'? It's more likely that the amount shown next to the word NEST is the employer contribution, and 'EE' is common payslip shorthand for 'employee contribution'. That would make rather more sense - maybe post a scan of your payslip (redacting any personal identifiers) if you still aren't sure if that hits the nail on the head? Have you checked your NEST account online to see if those numbers add up?

People on fixed term (temporary) contracts have the right to be treated 'no less favourably' than employees on permanent contracts. It's possible to delay auto-enrolment for up to 12 weeks, but  really good employers will enrol from day one. So yes, you should have been auto-enrolled - if you earned 'around £4-5K' for a summer contract, your annualised salary would have exceeded the minimum threshold. 

There's nothing in your post to suggest that you have any grounds for asking for a return of any employee contributions but please don't be overly dismayed by that. You will have had tax relief added to your pension 'pot' by the provider and had the benefit of the employer's contribution, so effectively 'free money' - and would you really want to pass that up...?

You have the splendid perk of a DB pension in your main job - but why not have a little extra icing on the cake by way of another pension?  

littlemiss19

Hi Macron, thanks so much for taking the time to provide me with a thorough response. 

I am awaiting a response from my employer, but in the meantime, you make good points about free money and perhaps my thinking is short term.

However, it just doesn't seem very easy having pension in several places. 

JoeCrystal

It doesn't sound like you have pension in several places. I firmly believe that Marcin is correct here. Do you have access to Nest online? Does it show how much it gets added in?

penners324

Ee pens will be your employee contributions.

Get access to your Nest pension scheme. You won't get any contributions back, nor should you ask really. Your future self won't thank you.

penners324

Your company should be providing payslips. Hmrc won't have them 

JoeCrystal

penners324 said:

Your company should be providing payslips. Hmrc won't have them 

There is no legal obligation to provide copies of past payslips. Once they give their employee a copy of the payslip, either printed or online, that's it as far they are concerned. It is not the employers' problem if their employees do not bother to keep them.

crv1963

littlemiss19 said:

Hi Macron, thanks so much for taking the time to provide me with a thorough response. 

I am awaiting a response from my employer, but in the meantime, you make good points about free money and perhaps my thinking is short term.

However, it just doesn't seem very easy having pension in several places. 

Having several pensions may seem odd but in fact most people have a couple of pension pots, as long as you keep track of them then it won't matter, you will most likely be able to pull them all into one pension pot in the future. If you do though you will still have 3 pensions- State Pension, DB Pension and your own DC Pension. 

All the little bits here and there eventually add up so never turn down pension membership, it's worth it for the employers contribution.

Marcon

crv1963 said:

littlemiss19 said:

Hi Macron, thanks so much for taking the time to provide me with a thorough response. 

I am awaiting a response from my employer, but in the meantime, you make good points about free money and perhaps my thinking is short term.

However, it just doesn't seem very easy having pension in several places. 

Having several pensions may seem odd but in fact most people have a couple of pension pots, as long as you keep track of them then it won't matter, you will most likely be able to pull them all into one pension pot in the future. If you do though you will still have 3 pensions- State Pension, DB Pension and your own DC Pension. 

All the little bits here and there eventually add up so never turn down pension membership, it's worth it for the employers contribution.

Couldn't have put it better!

OP, why do you feel that it 'doesn't seem very easy...'? You don't have 'a pension in several places' - you have 'several pensions in different places'. Would it help if you thought of your DB pension as a regular income stream in place of your salary once you get to retirement (ditto state pension when you get to state pension age), with your NEST pension as a tax efficient piggy bank you can dip into once you're old enough?

Also consider this: until you get to the point of actually accessing your retirement benefits (late 50s at the earliest), there is nothing at all you need to do except ensure you update your personal contact details with your DB scheme and NEST. Don't scare yourself by reading a ton of stuff about choosing funds, switching things around etc etc - your DB scheme takes care of everything for you, and NEST will have put you in a 'default' fund so you don't have to take any choices about what to do there. Take that as your starting point and as you get older/your NEST fund grows, you might want to get a bit more active - but you don't have to.

Grumpy_chap

littlemiss19 said:

do I have the right to request the employee contributions be returned to me?

When an employment has been short duration, there is a right to have the employee contributions returned.  They will be subject to taxation in the normal way.
The employer contributions are usually not returned to the employee but to the employer.

Marcon

Grumpy_chap said:

littlemiss19 said:

do I have the right to request the employee contributions be returned to me?

When an employment has been short duration, there is a right to have the employee contributions returned.  They will be subject to taxation in the normal way.
The employer contributions are usually not returned to the employee but to the employer.

It's nothing to do with the length of the employment - it's to do with the length of scheme membership. With a DC scheme (and most auto enrolment schemes nowadays are DC), you've only got one month from being auto-enrolled to do that, which OP had already spotted:

.littlemiss19 said:

I realise I have missed the one month notice period to opt out of  NEST, but if there is no evidence of the firm sending me details of the other pension, do I have the right to request the employee contributions be returned to me?

The right to opt out applies to all employees, not just those who work somewhere for a 'short duration'.