Pension Schemes

Planning for the Future

Pension schemes in the UK are opt-out rather than opt-in since it became law to ensure all employees have access to a pension scheme. Therefore even if you know your UK employee does not want to join the pension scheme, you must legally set a scheme up and make it available to the employee.

Although there are minimum employer and employee contributions in the UK, some employees may expect higher employer contributions. As part of our benchmarking service, Goodwille can advise what is standard for your industry or the job role you are recruiting for. Through our joint venture partner  with Evelyn Partners Financial Services Ltd we can provide advice on the full range of pension schemes. Evelyn Partners Financial Services Ltd is Authorised & Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Affinity Scheme

At Goodwille, we have our own Group personal pension scheme which gives smaller employers (this applies to our clients who have between 1 and 20 employees) the benefits of a larger pension scheme, but at a much lower cost. This is called the Affinity Scheme. With pension schemes being a legal requirement in the UK, and with contributions mandatory from both the employee and the employer no matter your size or scope (with the only exit plan being if your employee opts out), it’s an important area to get right! 

The benefits of the scheme include low Annual Management Charge costs to the employee and reductions in time and cost for setting up the scheme. 

Each of our clients has their own section and their contributions are managed on a case-by-case basis and the data protected and managed under GDPR . By pooling all of the employees from across each of our clients (whilst also retaining their separate entities) we are able to provide a more competitive scheme, as there are more employees, creating a larger pool and thus greater benefit to the employee.

Government Scheme (NEST)

NEST is the workplace pension set up by the government to ensure that every UK eligible employee has access to a pension scheme. Regardless of what your employee pays in, as an employer you will pay at least 3 percent of the pensionable earnings, per employee. 

Managing pensions, ensuring you are paying the right amount for each individual employee, and making sure the pension scheme is the most appropriate for your business and its size is essential in remaining within the law when operating your business in the UK.

Re-enrolment

Re-enrolment is the process of putting eligible employees who may have opted out back into the pension scheme. This is your responsibility as an employer.

Meet Our
HR Manager

Jacqui Brown
As our HR Manager, Jacqui provides high quality and compliant HR advice across the full spectrum of HR services for a portfolio of Goodwille clients. She offers pragmatic advice on technical matters relating to HR issues including employee relations, organisation design, policies and procedures, implementation of new contracts and staff handbooks, benefits and salary levels, recruitment and training solutions.