Whatever your age, retirement may seem a long way off; but that doesn't meant that it's not worth taking advantage now of the incentives the goverment is offering. After all, the sooner you start the greater the financial benefit to you.
The government is keen for people to save for later years, so the rules are set up to make pensions a financially attractive idea. As a basic-rate tax payer in 2008/9, for every £10 of profit-related pay you sacrifice into your pension, £11.28 actually goes into the pension, and your take-home money is only reduced by £6.90.
This happens because the percentage of your income you sacrifice to a pension is replaced by an ‘employer pension contribution’. As a result, you don’t have to pay the Employer or Employee National Insurance contributions on anything you sacrifice, you benefit because this NI saving can be added to the amount going into your pension.
The Gabem Umbrella Company pension scheme is available to employees of Gabem Managements umbrella company payroll scheme. You simply choose the amount of pay you wish to sacrifice into your pension each week or month, whether it's a percentage of your wage, a fixed amount, or everything over or under a limit you set. This will then be set and unchangable for a year barring life altering circumstances (for example, the birth of a child, or if you decide to get married, or divorced).
You will have your own account within the pension, entirely separate from Gabem, so if you take full time employment or decide to stop using our Umbrella Company Service, you can transfer in to your new employer or keep paying into it separately by yourself.
There is a management charge taken from the fund on a yearly basis by Friends Provident of 0.9%, and Equus IFM Ltd (the independent financial advisors you will have contact with) will be paid by Friends Provident out of this charge. Once you are signed up the people at Equus will be happy to offer independent financial advice on matters outside your pension for no additional charge to you, or your fund.
The document below goes into greater depth about the pension scheme, and will hopefully help you to make a decision.
