FAQs

They’re what we call the two different types of contributions you can make. 

Start Up contributions are 4% of your pay between £480 and £3,867 each pay period, and Sainsbury’s pays the same. They’re like an introduction to pension saving. When you pay Start Up contributions, you get basic life cover of one times your annual contractual basic pay. 

Step Up contributions are more flexible so you can pay from 4% up to any amount and Sainsbury’s will match your contribution up to 7.5%. When you pay Step Up contributions, you’re also eligible for enhanced life cover of six times your annual contractual basic pay.

‘Life cover’ means a lump sum payment to your beneficiaries, if you should die while you’re still working for Sainsbury’s. It’s an extra benefit provided by Sainsbury’s to its employees, on top of any contributions we pay into your pension.

A pension is a tax-efficient way of saving money that you can use to live on when you retire. In a workplace pension like the Sainsbury’s Retirement Savings Plan (SRSP), both you and your employer pay contributions.

The State Pension is a regular payment from the government when you reach State Pension age. You do not start getting it automatically – you have to claim it. 

To qualify, you need at least 10 years of National Insurance contributions or credits. 

More about the State Pension.

If you pay Step Up contributions of 4% or more, you’re eligible for enhanced life cover of six times your annual contractual basic pay. 

If you’re in Start Up or if you’re not a member of the pension, you have life cover of one times your annual contractual basic pay.

The amount of State Pension you get depends on how many years you’ve paid National Insurance. You need at least 10 years to qualify, and 35 years for the full amount. It also depends on things like whether you’re married. 

Check how much State Pension you could get.

There may be some restrictions on your cover, if you didn’t start paying Step Up contributions within a year of joining or if you stop paying Step Up contributions.

Your State Pension age depends on your birth date. The age is gradually rising and is set to increase further. 

Find your State Pension age.

In some cases, if you’ve been on sick leave, you won’t be covered for the enhanced (six times) life cover until you are classed as being ‘actively at work’. This means that:

• you have returned to full active employment;
• you are physically and mentally able to perform all the duties associated with your normal job;
• you are not working against medical advice; and
• you have finished any ‘phased return to work’ programme.

Your life cover until you’re actively at work will be one times annual contractual basic pay.

Pension Credit helps pensioners on a low income. It has two parts: 

• Guarantee Credit, which tops up your weekly income 
• Savings Credit, which provides extra money if you have saved for retirement and reached State Pension age before April 2016. 

Pension Credit can also help you get other benefits like Housing Benefit, Winter Fuel Payment, Council Tax reduction, and a free TV licence if you’re over 75. 

More about Pension Credit.

You can tell us who you’d like to receive your life cover by completing a ‘lump sum life cover form’. 

The money in your pension pot will also be paid out; you need to complete a different form for this, called a ‘return of pension pot form’. 

The trustees who run the Plan have discretion to decide who should get this money, but they will be guided by your wishes. By doing it in this way, the money doesn’t form part of your estate so there is no inheritance tax to pay. 

It’s a good idea to review your forms every so often and whenever your circumstances change, such as if you get married or divorced, enter or leave a civil partnership or have a child.

The Annual Allowance (AA) is the amount that can be paid each year into your pension with tax relief. The Annual Allowance for most people is £60,000 (from April 2023) but there are two variations on this:

• The Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA), which applies to people who take their DC pension pots flexibly and is currently £10,000 – find out more here.
• The Tapered Annual Allowance, which affects high earners and reduces their Annual Allowance on a sliding scale down to £10,000. 

The Annual Allowance guide will help you work out if you’re affected by the Tapered Annual Allowance, and if so, what you can do about it. 

WTW has created an app which calculates what your AA is and can be downloaded here: WTW: AA Calculator.

Or you can use this carry-forward calculator from Hargreaves Lansdown to work out how much unused AA from previous years is available to offset your current limits: Hargreaves Lansdown: Carry-Forward AA Calculator.

The amount of Pension Credit you get depends on your circumstances. This includes whether you’re single or in a couple, and if you have disabilities or caring responsibilities. 

Check the latest Pension Credit rates.

Your retirement income can usually come from three kinds of pension: 

• State Pension – a regular payment from the government 
• Workplace pensions – pensions from employers you have worked for (like your pension pot in the Sainsbury’s Retirement Savings Plan) 
• Private pensions – a pension you arranged yourself. 

 You might start getting these different pensions at different times, and you might have options about how to take them.

The money that’s left in your SRSP pension pot or private pension usually goes to your family or someone you choose. Some pensions will pay an income to a spouse or partner. 

For the State Pension, this stops when you die. But your partner might be able to get some of your State Pension. 

More about pensions when you die.

Yes, pensioners do pay Council Tax, but you might pay less if any of these apply: 

• you live alone 
• you get Pension Credit 
• you have a low income 
• you are disabled. 

Apply for a Council Tax reduction.

SMART is a way of paying into your pension pot. It’s a salary sacrifice arrangement where you give up some of your pay in exchange for a benefit. It costs less to be in the Plan when you pay by SMART because you get savings on how much National Insurance you pay. There’s more information in the SMART guide.

You will only pay tax if your total income each year is more than your Personal Allowance. So if you can spread your income out over more years, you might pay less tax – but you’ll also reduce your yearly income. 

You can also usually take some of your private or workplace pension as tax-free cash. 

More about tax on pensions.

You can check online by signing up to Manage Your Account (you will be directed to an external site) or call Legal & General on 0345 302 0323.

Have a look at our online retirement planner (you will be directed to an external site). The planner shows you the likely estimated income and pension pot you could get. All you need to do is enter your date of birth and your yearly pay. 

The more you put into your pension pot, the more you’re likely to have in retirement.

If you are leaving within the first month of being automatically enrolled, please follow the instructions in the joining letter you received from Legal & General. Otherwise, log in to MyHR or call AskHR on 08000 15 30 30.

Please note, if you opt out of the SRSP, we may need to automatically re-enrol you every three years if you meet certain conditions. This is to comply with pensions law requirements.

You should start off by reading Legal & General’s investment guide. Neither Sainsbury’s nor Legal & General can advise you on how to invest your pension pot. 

MoneyHelper, the government’s free guidance service about money and pensions, also has a lot of information about pension investments, explained in simple terms, and you can also use their retirement adviser directory to find a regulated and impartial adviser if you feel you need one.

If you don’t want to choose where your pension pot is invested, you can simply do nothing. In this case, your contributions will be invested in the default investment option, which is Legal & General’s Target Date Fund. There are a number of Target Date Funds and your pension pot will be invested in the one that matches most closely to your target retirement date. So, for example, if you were born in 1972 and plan to retire at age 65 (in 2037), then your investments would be in the 2035 – 2040 Target Date Fund. There’s more information about Target Date Funds in the investment guide.

Pension saving isn’t risk free, but it is an efficient, tax-free way to save. There are high risk and lower risk investment funds; the investment guide has a section that looks at the relationship between risk and reward. 

You should expect to see the value of your pension pot both grow and go down a little bit at times; this is normal. The chance of losing all of what you pay into your pension pot is extremely low.

Access your benefits page on MyHR, or call AskHR on 08000 15 30 30.

You should save what you can afford to pay and balance this with how much money you’ll need to live on when you come to your retirement. 

Have a look at the MoneyHelper's budget planner to see what you might need to budget for.

Then, have a look at the cost calculator to see how much it costs to be in the SRSP.

It costs much less than you think to be in the SRSP. You get tax relief on your contributions and if you pay by SMART, you get savings on how much National Insurance you pay too. Then, on top of that you also get Sainsbury’s contribution. 

For every £20 that goes into your pension pot, it would actually only cost you £7, so you more than double your money. Have a look at our cost calculator to see how much it costs you.

When you first start working for Sainsbury’s, you can find out about our pension and how to join on Our Sainsbury’s. You can also read this leaflet for a quick overview of the Plan. It’s really easy to join. Just go to MyHR or contact the AskHR team (08000 15 30 30) if you have any problems joining.

You can change your investments through Manage Your Account (you will be directed to an external site) or by calling Legal & General on 0345 302 0323. Have a look at the investment factsheets and investment guide for more information about the full range of funds available.

If you want, you can decide how to invest your pension pot. You can choose from a range of investment funds that the Trustee has set up for members, for example, a sustainable property fund or an equity (company shares) fund. Click here for detailed fund factsheets.

The Lifetime Allowance (LTA) is the total pension savings you can have without paying an extra tax charge. From April 2024 the LTA was abolished. At the same time, the maximum tax-free cash you can take at retirement was capped at £268,275 (or 25% of the last LTA of £1,073,100) – unless you have an earlier LTA protection (see below). 

The LTA was first introduced in 2006 and successive governments have raised or lowered it over that time. Members were able to avoid a tax charge by applying for ‘protection’ from HMRC. If you applied for protection when the LTA was higher than its final level of £1,073,100, you may be eligible to take a higher tax-free cash amount.

SMART works out better for most colleagues, but there are some cases where we won’t be able to take contributions by SMART, for example if:

• being in SMART brings your pay below the National Minimum/National Living Wage;
• your pay is below the Pay Protection Limit (£1,060 for Step Up and £1,020 for Start Up); or
• you’re receiving a form of statutory pay such as maternity, paternity, adoption or sick pay. 

If any of these circumstances change in a later period, then we’ll be able to take your contributions by SMART again.

Yes. You don’t have to give up work. You can also continue to pay into the pension if you would like to, up until age 75. When you’re near to your retirement date, both Sainsbury’s and Legal & General will write to you to let you know your options.

You can take your pension from age 55 onwards. The younger you are when you take your pension, the less income you’re likely to get if you choose to buy an income. The government has recently increased this age, so the earliest you’ll be able to take your pension will be age 57 from 6 April 2028. If you’re aged 55 or 56 on 6 April 2028 and you haven’t started taking your pension, you’ll have to wait until you’re 57.

You have much more flexibility than ever before in how you can take your Sainsbury’s Retirement Savings Plan benefits. You can:

• use your pension pot to buy an income (called an ‘annuity’)
• take your pension pot as cash
• take some of your pension as cash and use the rest to buy an income
• take up to 25% cash tax-free; any amount in excess of this would be taxed at your marginal rate
• take a combination of the above. 

Legal & General will write to you with your options nearer to your retirement date.

Your options depend on how long you’ve been a member of the SRSP. 

If you leave within the first month of being automatically enrolled into the pension (i.e., you opt out), you will get a refund of your contribution in your next month’s pay. 

If you did not opt out within the first month, you won’t be able to take the money in your pension pot until you are at least 55* years old. Until then, you can leave your pension pot with Legal & General, where it will remain invested, or you can move the money in your pension pot to another pension arrangement of your choice (e.g., perhaps your new employer’s pension). 

When you leave the pension, Legal & General will contact you to tell you about your options. If you leave Sainsbury’s, you lose your life cover. 

*This is going up to 57 from 6 April 2028.

This is the age that you choose to take the money that has built up in your pension pot. It can be any age from 55, although the government is raising this minimum pension age to 57 in April 2028. 

It’s important to tell Legal & General your target retirement age, especially if you’re invested in a Target Date Fund, so that it works the way it’s supposed to. If you don’t choose a target retirement age, we’ll assume you intend to retire at 65.

The contributions from you and Sainsbury’s are invested in the default investment option or you can choose your own investments. The value of your pension pot can go down or up at any point in time, depending on the performance of your investments.

You can pay in as much as you like. We have two different contribution rates: Start Up and Step Up.

Start Up contributions are 4% of your pensionable pay between £480 and £3,867 each pay period. This is the rate you’ll pay if you’re automatically enrolled or choose to join Start Up. 

Step Up contributions in the SRSP are 4%, 5%, 6%, 7% or 7.5%, or more, of your Step Up pensionable salary.

You’ll pay Start Up contributions of 4% of your Start Up pensionable pay between £480 and £3,867 each pay period, and Sainsbury’s will pay the same.

No, we have to enrol you by law if you meet the conditions, but you don’t have to stay in the pension if you don’t want to. See ‘How can I opt out?’ below for more information.

You will be automatically enrolled if you’re not already a member of our pension plan when you meet all of these conditions:

• you’re over age 22
• you’re under State pension age
• you earn £768 or more in a pay period, and
• you’ve been with us for nine weeks or more. 

Legal & General will write to you if you’ve been automatically enrolled, with more information about the Plan.

UK employers are legally required to enrol eligible employees into a workplace pension and for both the employer and employee to make contributions towards it. Once enrolled, employees have the option to leave the pension plan (opt out). 

If you opt out of the SRSP, Sainsbury’s will have to automatically re-enrol you every three years or when you reach a certain age or salary level.

Firstly, your employer helps you save for retirement by paying money into your pension (on top of the money you pay in yourself). If you opt out of the SRSP, you won’t get this extra contribution. 

The government also wants to help people save for the future, so you don’t pay tax on the money you pay into your pension, which means it costs less than you think. If you’re a basic-rate taxpayer, every £1 you pay in actually only costs you 80p. Paying your contributions using SMART further reduces the cost of every £1 to just 72p. 

In addition to this ‘free money’, being in a workplace pension is easy. Sainsbury’s sets it all up for you, so you don’t have to think about setting up direct debits or any of the other hassles you might have in taking out a personal pension. 

As a member of the SRSP, you also get life cover of six times your basic annual salary if you pay Step Up contributions, and one times your basic annual salary if you pay Start Up contributions.

If you don’t want to be in the SRSP, you can opt out in the first month by following the instructions on the joining letter that you will receive from Legal & General.

The quickest way to receive a refund is by applying online through Legal & General’s website. The instructions on how to do this will be included in your letter.

If you have any questions about this, you can call Legal & General on 0345 302 0323, quoting your National Insurance number.

You can leave the pension at any time, via MyHR or call AskHR on 08000 15 30 30 (or speak to your HR team if you are a colleague in Logistics) to stop your contributions. If you leave after the first month, your money will remain invested in the SRSP but you have options see the ‘Leaving’ section in the category selector.