There are three types of non-State pension. Some are offered by employers and some you can start yourself. They are: <\/strong><\/p>\n – Occupational Final Salary Schemes – offered by some employers<\/p>\n – Occupational Defined Contribution Schemes (also called Money Purchase Schemes) \u2013 offered by some employers<\/p>\n – Stakeholder Pension Schemes and Personal Pensions – offered by some employers, or you can start one yourself. You may also be offered a group personal pension at work (also called Money Purchase Schemes).<\/p>\n If you work for a business employing fewer than five employees, your employer does not currently have to offer you access to a pension scheme. However, the government is planning changes that will mean all employers will have to offer and contribute towards a pension in the future. From 2012 employers will need to automatically enrol their eligible workers into a qualifying pension scheme and make contributions to it.\u00a0Employees will be able to opt-out of their employer\u2019s scheme if they choose not to participate.<\/p>\n Workers who give notice during the formal opt-out period will be put back in the position they would have been in if they had not become members in the first place, which may include a refund of any contributions taken following automatic enrolment.<\/p>\n Although you don\u2019t have to join any pension scheme offered through your employment, it usually makes sense to join an occupational pension scheme if it\u2019s available because:<\/p>\n – your employer normally contributes<\/p>\n – often you also receive other benefits, such as life insurance which pays a lump sum and\/or pension to your dependants if you die while still in service; a pension if you have to retire early because of ill-health; and pensions for your spouse and other dependants when you die.<\/p>\n Not all pensions offered by employers are occupational pensions. Your employer may offer a Stakeholder Pension or a Personal Pension through a Group Personal Pension arrangement. These pensions are not called occupational pensions, even though the employer may contribute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Planning for your retirement years There are three types of non-State pension. Some are offered by employers and some you can start yourself. They are: – Occupational Final Salary Schemes – offered by some employers – Occupational Defined Contribution Schemes (also called Money Purchase Schemes) \u2013 offered by some employers – Stakeholder Pension Schemes and… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suretyfp.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}