Check your auto-enrolment rights, employer pension obligations, opting out rules and what to do if your employer is not paying into your pension — checked against official sources.
↓ Try the Checker NowFree to use: Run any checker, read your full results and download them as a printable report — no account needed.
Describe your employment situation and we'll check your rights
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 whether your employer enrolled you or you asked to join, when you were enrolled, the opt-out end date in your Nest welcome letter if you have it, and what has happened with your pension.
Free · Guidance only, not legal advice
How much goes into my workplace pension?
The minimum total contribution is 8% of qualifying earnings. Your employer must pay at least 3% of it; you pay the rest, or less if your employer pays more.
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?
It is set each April: check GOV.UK for the current full rate. You usually need 35 qualifying National Insurance years for the full amount. Pension Credit tops up a low weekly income to a minimum amount, also set each April.
Analysing your situation...
Checking against current UK law
Generating...
The checker answers only from this guide (one guide for the whole UK; lines that differ by nation are marked), plus what you tell it. If your question is not covered there, it says so instead of guessing. Each guide was checked against primary sources on 25 September 2026.
Spotted something missing, wrong or out of date? Tell us, or comment on the guide.
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.
UK Work Rights provides free, plain English guidance to help you understand where you stand. Each checker answers only from its own guide for your part of the UK, checked against official sources. We cover 67 free AI rights checkers, with guides for each part of the UK, across employment, housing, benefits, consumer, driving, family and more.
Our guidance covers many common situations, but complex or high-stakes cases need professional advice. For employment issues, contact ACAS in England, Wales and Scotland (0300 123 1100) or the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland (03300 555 300). For free general advice, contact Citizens Advice (England 0800 144 8848, Wales 0800 702 2020), Citizens Advice Scotland (0800 028 1456) or Advice NI (0800 915 4604). For urgent housing problems in England, Shelter can help on 0808 800 4444.
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.
UK Work Rights is completely free and always will be. If this guidance helped you, a small donation helps keep the site running and updated for everyone.
100% goes to running and maintaining this free service. No pressure — the guidance is always free.