All employers are required by law to put their workers who meet the criteria below into a workplace pension scheme to help people save more for their retirement: -

• Are not already an active member of one of the College pension schemes
• You earn over £833.00 per month
• You are aged 22 or over and
• You are under the state pension age
• And ordinarily work in the UK.

We will enrol everyone who meets the above criteria into a pension scheme on 1 June 2022.  The only exception will be if you have opted-out of the pension scheme between 1 June 2021 and 31 May 2022, you will not be enrolled until our next auto-enrolment anniversary in 2025.

The pension scheme you will be enrolled in will depend on your grade and eligibility on 1 June 2022.  More information on which scheme you are eligible for can be found here.

This will depend on which scheme you have joined. SAUL members currently contribute 6% of pensionable pay whilst USS members currently pay 9.8% of pensionable pay.

No. You are only eligible to re-join the NHSPS if you have contributed to it in the last 12 months and the College cannot automatically enrol you back in. You will therefore be enrolled into either SAUL or USS (eligibility is dependent on your grade and role).  If you have been in the NHSPS within the last 12 months and would like to re-join you will need to apply to do so. Please email pensions@imperial.ac.uk if you would like to do so.

Once you have been enrolled you can opt-out if you wish.  You cannot do this until 1 June 2022 at the earliest. You can download an opt-out form by following this link. The law does not allow us to provide you with the form and you must download and complete it yourself.

There will be a short period at the start of each month where we are able to take action to prevent pension contributions being deducted in that month, please see table of dates below.  If we receive your opt-out form after this period, your contributions will cease from the month following.  If we receive your opt-out form before 31 August 2022 we will be able to refund your contributions paid since 1 June in the next pay run.  If you opt-out after 1 September, you will not be entitled to a refund of contributions, but your benefits will be held by your pension scheme until you retire or transfer them elsewhere.

Yes, you can request to join the scheme at any time by emailing pensions@imperial.ac.uk. 

You will still be enrolled into a pension scheme if you meet the criteria above.  If you don’t meet the criteria on 1 June you will be enrolled as soon as you do in the future, unless you have opted-out.

If you have applied for protection of your Lifetime Allowance you will have been provided with written confirmation and a registration number by HMRC.  As long as you have shared this with the Pensions and Payroll Team you will be excluded from auto enrolment. If you have not yet shared your registration please do so by emailing pensions@imperial.ac.uk. 

You will still be enrolled into a pension scheme if you meet the criteria above.  You will then start to build up a new pension pot which will provide you with some additional pension when you retire again.

If you don’t meet the criteria above but are interested in building up a new pension pot you may still be eligible to join the pension scheme.  If you are interested please email pensions@imperial.ac.uk.