Membership

Your pension is a simple and cost effective way for you to save for your retirement. It is a defined contribution Plan and this means it works a bit like a savings account: 

• Money goes in – While you are an active member, you and your employer contribute to your retirement account every month. The Government also provides a number of tax incentives to help you save more.

• You help your savings grow – You choose where to invest your retirement account from a range of investment options. How much your savings grow by will depend on how your investments perform, how much money goes in and when you retire.
• You use your account to support you in retirement – When you retire you can use the money you have saved to provide an income – there are a number of different income options you can choose. You can also take some of your money as a cash lump sum (currently up to 25% is tax free and the rest is taxed as income).

The way you can take your benefits is changing - go to the Retirement section below for more information. 

Information about the benefits of joining the Plan, and the investment choices available, can be found in the Plan website.

How to join the Plan

There are three ways you can join the Plan:

1. You can complete an Application Form.
2. You can elect to be automatically enrolled in the Plan.
3. You can wait to be automatically enrolled in the Plan.

If you do not submit an Application Form and you are an Eligible Jobholder, you will be automatically enrolled into the Plan. Please read the Plan website for more information. 

Joining the Plan automatically

To help people save for their retirement, legislation requires all employers to automatically enrol their employees into a workplace pension if they meet certain criteria. This is that they are working in the United Kingdom and are:

• earning over £10,000 a year; and
• age 22 or over; and
• under State Pension age.

Employees meeting this criteria are known as eligible jobholders. Employees who are not eligible jobholders will only be automatically enrolled on request, or if they later become an eligible jobholder.

When will you be automatically enrolled?

All employers have been allocated Staging Dates which is when they must begin automatically enrolling their Eligible Jobholders into a workplace pension.

Once you have been automatically enrolled into the Plan you may opt out but you will lose valuable benefits including a contribution from your Employer.

If you are not an eligible Jobholder

You will not be automatically enrolled into the Plan if you are not an eligible jobholder. You can still join the Plan by completing an Application Form.

You can also ask to be automatically enrolled on by completing an application form.

Important note

If you have applied for, and been granted, Fixed or Enhanced Protection because you have already amassed a large amount of pension savings (around £1.5m or more) you will lose this protection if you are automatically enrolled into the Plan and do not opt out.

To find out more

You can find out more about automatic enrolment on the Plan website

How much will you pay?

Howden Joinery will help build your pension fund by making contributions to your Plan. Further information on your payments to the Plan can be found on the Plan website.

Cost of Contribution Calculator - Only to be used by members or prospective members of the Plan

Retirement

As a member of the Plan, you gain access to important benefits for your dependants in the event of your death. These benefits will vary depending on your situation when you die. Further information can be found on the Plan website.

If you leave service or opt out of the Plan whilst still employed by Howden Joinery, the options available to you (and whether you can keep your Account invested in the Plan) will depend on how long you were a member of the Plan. If you opt out of the Plan you will lose valuable benefits including contributions from your employer.

Please refer to the Plan website for more information.

If you leave your Account invested in the Plan, remember to keep the your provider advised of any changes of address so that they  can send you statements and contact you when you are due to retire.

If you decide to leave the Plan while still employed by the Company, legislation requires your Employer to automatically enrol you back into the Plan, if you meet certain criteria, at regular intervals (usually every three years). If you still do not wish to use the Plan to save for your retirement, you will need to opt out each time you are automatically enrolled.

You should keep your investment choices under regular review to ensure they continue to meet your needs.