Because the government set the minimum contribution levels that both employers and employees must make into their workplace pensions as a condition of auto enrolment, and because employers may offer more generous pension arrangements with additional conditions, it is not possible to take a payment holiday or temporarily reduce your contributions into your workplace pension.
If you have been making additional regular contributions into your pension over and above the minimum requirements, you can lower or stop these additional voluntary contributions by contacting us and we will make the necessary arrangements with your employer.
If you are experiencing short term financial difficulties, you are entitled to cease membership and freeze your pension. However, it is important that you understand what you will lose if you do this, including extra contributions into your pension from your employer and any tax relief from the government. If you do need to cancel your pension contributions, you should aim to re-join your workplace pension as soon as you are able to in order to reduce the risk to your longer-term financial wellbeing.
It is important to know that, if you leave your pension, your employer is not obliged to accept you back into their workplace pension until their re-enrolment date – the date at which they must auto-enrol any employees that are currently not saving into their pension. This may mean you losing a significant amount of additional contributions from your employer.
If you still need to leave, you can use our online chatbot to begin the process.
