Check your auto-enrolment rights, employer pension obligations, opting out rules and what to do if your employer is not paying into your pension — verified against GOV.UK and The Pensions Regulator.
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Tip: Tell us your age, how long you've worked there, your earnings, and what your employer has or hasn't done regarding your pension.
Include how long you have worked there, your salary, your age, and what has happened with your pension enrolment.
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How much goes into my workplace pension?
The minimum total contribution is 8% — made up of 3% from your employer and 5% from you.
Do I earn enough to be automatically enrolled?
Automatic enrolment applies only if you earn above £10,000 a year. That figure is the earnings trigger.
What are qualifying earnings?
£6,240 to £50,270 — the band used to calculate contributions. This is a different thing from the £10,000 earnings trigger, and the two are often confused.
What is NEST and who can use it?
NEST is a government-backed workplace pension scheme. Any employer can use NEST to meet their automatic enrolment duties, and self-employed people can join voluntarily.
What charges does NEST apply?
A 0.3% annual management charge, plus a 1.8% charge on contributions paid in.
What is the new State Pension worth?
£241.30 per week for 2026/27. You need 35 qualifying National Insurance years for the full amount. Pension Credit guarantees a single person £238.00 per week.
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NEST is one of the workplace pension providers used to meet auto-enrolment duties, and you have the same statutory rights around it as any other qualifying scheme — including the right to opt out within a set window and receive a full refund of what you've contributed.
Opting out within one month of being enrolled entitles you to a full refund of your contributions, as though you'd never joined — opt out after this window and you can still leave the scheme, but your existing contributions generally stay invested until retirement rather than being refunded.
Employers offering incentives to opt out, or making it easier to opt out than to stay in, are acting unlawfully — auto-enrolment exists specifically to make saving the default, not something you have to actively choose.
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Directed and published by Matt Thompson, founder of UK Work Rights. Guidance checked against GOV.UK, ACAS and legislation.gov.uk. This is general rights guidance, not legal advice.
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