Normal retirement age
Age 62.
During service
- Your contributions (including any paid through Salary Exchange) and the Company’s build up in a pension pot which is used to provide benefits at retirement
- You choose your contribution rate subject to a minimum of 3% of Pensionable Salary and age-related rates which rise to a maximum of 8% from age 45
- The Company pays double your contributions
- Your pension pot is invested in your choice of available funds from Aviva
On ill-health retirement
Ill-health retirement pension of 50% of pensionable salary.
If you were a member of the Pearson Group Money Purchase Section before joining the Money Purchase 2003 (MP03) Section, an underpin may apply to your ill-health retirement pension. Further details about the underpin are available on request.
Death in service
The benefits are:
- A lump sum of 4 x pensionable salary
- A lump sum payable equal to the proceeds of any Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) paid
- A spouse’s/civil partner’s or nominated dependant’s pension of 33% of pensionable salary. There may be scope for a pension to be payable even if there is no spouse/civil partner.
- Children’s pensions of 8.5% of pensionable salary for each child (maximum four). This is doubled if there is no spouse/civil partner/ nominated dependant pension payable. The Trustee decides how the children’s pension will be shared between dependent children.
On leaving the Plan
You have two options:
- Transfer the value of your pension pot (including the Company’s contributions) to another registered pension arrangement, or;
- Leave your pension pot invested in the Plan until retirement. No further contributions are payable. You are known as a deferred member
Death as a deferred member
Your spouse/civil partner/nominated dependant will receive any contracted-out benefits to which he or she is entitled. The cost of this benefit is met from your pension pot. If your pension pot is sufficient, after the cost of providing any contracted-out benefits, a lump sum is payable equal to your own basic contributions paid (including any paid through Salary Exchange) and transferred to the Plan plus interest. Any balance of your pension pot, including the proceeds of any Additional Voluntary Contributions, is used to provide pensions for your dependants.
Monitoring your pension pot
All active and deferred members of the Plan will receive, or have access to, the following information:
- MyWorkplace - This link opens in a new browser window – information about your investment options, the value of your pension pot and a pension modeller to allow you to see estimates of your potential pension at retirement
- Annual benefit statement – a personal statement showing the value of your pension pot as at 1 April and providing an estimate of your potential pension at retirement
- Trustee Report to Members – a summary of the Plan Report and Accounts
At retirement
Your normal retirement date is your 62nd birthday but you can retire any time after age 55 with Company consent. However, the government intends to increase the minimum retirement age from 55 to 57 from the 6 April 2028.
Your options at retirement will be as follows:
- Use your pension pot to purchase a pension in the Plan (subject to company consent)
- Take up to 25% of your pension pot as a tax-free lump sum and use the rest to buy a pension in the Plan
- Transfer the value of your pension pot to an external pension arrangement, which may provide the option to purchase an annuity or to take your fund as one or more cash lump sums or to use a Flexi-access Drawdown facility
Please note the Rules of the Plan are the binding documents of the Plan and will always override the information provided in this website. For deferred members the Plan Rules at the date of leaving are relevant.
