Leaving your pension scheme is a big decision and could have a significant impact on your financial future. You will then not receive pension contributions from your employer, which means you will miss out on free money for your retirement.
Find out more about auto-enrolment. If you leave your pension scheme be aware that there are specific rules on re-joining so please think carefully.
Leaving is a big decision
Leaving your pension scheme means you will:
Miss out on free money for your retirement from your employer.
Miss out on saving money for your own retirement, plus the tax relief.
Miss out on potential investment growth.
This may mean you don’t get the retirement you want. While your retirement may seem a long way away, it’s important to think about your future.
If you need help with your finances today, check out our financial wellbeing hub for tips and techniques to manage your money, or speak to MoneyHelper for free money guidance.
Before you decide to leave, take a look at the reasons to stay with Smart Pension which will give you more information about us.
Ways to leave a pension scheme
There are two different ways to leave a pension scheme. Which one you can use will depend on how long you've been a member:
Less than one month – if you're automatically enrolled by your employer but you don't want to be a part of the scheme, you can opt out of membership if you've been a member for less than a month. You'll receive a refund for any contributions you've made.
More than one month – If you've been a member of the scheme for more than one month, but want to stop making contributions, you need to cease membership. Your contributions and your employer's contributions will stay invested.
How to leave a Smart Pension scheme
Sign in and select the Stop paying in button at the bottom of the page.
You will be taken to the “Stop paying in to this pension” page, from here click on the Cease membership of this pension scheme button. If you are in the opt out window, as mentioned above, the steps will be the same but it will refer to opting out rather than ceasing membership.
You should read the information on the next page carefully, and if you still want to cease membership, tick the boxes which confirm you are the scheme member and have understood the consequences and click on Cease membership.
A final warning pop up will appear. Type "I wish to cease membership" in the box, to confirm. Then, click the red Cease membership button.
Depending on whether you opt out or cease membership, there are some differences in what happens next.
Opting out
To opt out of a pension scheme, you need to tell us you want to leave within one month of being automatically enrolled. This is the opt out window. If you leave in the opt out window, you'll get a refund on any contributions you've made so far. The refund will come through your employer.
If you choose to opt out of your workplace pension scheme, you can request to opt in again at any time, but your employer only has to accept your request once every 12 months.
Ceasing membership
If you leave your pension scheme after the opt out window has ended, you won't get a refund on any of your contributions. This money – including any employer contributions – will stay invested.
If you decide you want to rejoin, you can ask your employer at any time. They might not accept this request if you leave and try to rejoin multiple times in a twelve-month period.
Re-enrolment
If you carry on working for the same employer, they will check whether you need to be re-enrolled roughly every three years from when they first set up a workplace pension scheme. If you opted out less than a year from when they carry out re-enrolment, they won't include you in these checks, but they will include you the next time.