Auto Enrolment
Queen Mary pensions - A change in the law that affects you from 1st July 2016
Under pension’s legislation, Queen Mary auto enrolled individuals into one of our pension schemes on 1st May 2013.
The legislation stated that we must automatically re-enrol individuals into a scheme if they are not existing members or have not opted out within the previous 12 months.
The re-enrolment date is 1st July 2016, therefore all employees who have not opted out within the previous 12 months and satisfy the criteria detailed below will be automatically enrolled into either USS or Saul scheme.
Why is this happening?
To help people save more for their retirement, the government now requires employers to enrol or re-enrol their workers into a workplace pension scheme.
The government’s aim is for more people to have another income, on top of the State Pension, when they come to retire. The full new State Pension from April 2016 is £155.65 a week for a single person. This is intended to be a foundation - you may want more.
Employers are enrolling their workers automatically into a scheme to make it easier for people to start saving.
What does this mean for you?
If you are not in a pension scheme and you satisfy the following criteria (referred to as a Job holder) you will be automatically enrolled into either USS or Saul.
Job Holder criteria
• earn over £10,000 a year (£833 a month)
• are aged 22 or over; and
• are under State Pension age.
You can choose to opt out of the scheme if you wish (see below), but if you stay in you will have your own pension which you get when you retire. In addition:
• Queen Mary (QM) and you will both pay into it every month
• The government will also contribute through tax relief and you will be enrolled via the salary sacrifice scheme (known as Pensions Plus) thus also saving you some National Insurance. If you wish to be in the pension scheme, but not pay via Pensions Plus then please let the QM pensions team know.
• Your pension belongs to you, even if you leave QM in the future.
An email or where applicable a letter has been sent to all eligible members. if you wish to opt out please take the relevant action as mentioned on the email/letter.
