Pension Scheme
Helping you save for your retirement
Pension Overview
National Employment Savings Trust (NEST)
The Society has only one pension scheme open to new members, the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST). All new starters aged 22 or over, who are below State Pension Age and who earn at least £10,000 a year will be automatically enrolled in NEST by the Society. Please click here to see our FAQ guide for new colleagues.
If you wish to make additional contributions, click here to find the Additional Voluntary Contribution form (AVC form) and return to the email address on the bottom of the form.
What is Automatic Enrolment?
Employers in the UK have an obligation to automatically enrol employees into an authorised workplace pension scheme, provided the employees meet the criteria specified above.
The Society uses NEST to meet its obligations. NEST write to colleagues when they are first automatically enrolled and send them details of how to opt out and access their accounts.
The contributions that both you and the Society are required to pay each period on qualifying earnings are 5% from the colleague and 3% from the Society.
Qualifying earnings for the 2024/25 financial year are:
| Year 2024/25 | Annual | 4 weeks |
| Lower level of qualifying earnings | £6,240 | £480 |
If you want to opt out of NEST arrangements, you can do so within the first month of being enrolled. If you want to stop contributions into NEST after that time, you will need to contact helen.flint-hill@midcounties.coop
If you have misplaced your login information, you should contact NEST directly.
You can also find additional information on NEST's website.
Legal & General scheme
In June 2014, the Society set up the Legal & General's scheme as a replacement pension arrangement for former CARE members.
Members of the Legal and General scheme can log in to their accounts online and monitor their fund, change investment choice etc. If you have any questions or need further information you should contact Legal & General's helpline directly: 0345 070 8686.
You can also find additional information, and log in, on Legal & General's website
If you have misplaced your login information, you should contact Legal & General's helpline directly: 0345 070 8686.
What about the CARE Scheme?
The CARE scheme closed to future build up in June 2014. The administration of the scheme, including the payment of pensions, is dealt with by Isio Pensions. All questions about your benefits with the CARE schemes should be directed to Isio Pensions - contact details as below 0800 122 3200
Stakeholder pension scheme
In February 2016, the Society switched all future contributions to the stakeholder scheme to Legal & General, whilst existing funds remained with Royal London - unless members had instructed the Society to transfer their funds to Legal & General instead.
If you wish to increase or decrease your contributions or have any other questions, you should contact the Society's Head of Pensions: Helen.Flint-Hill@midcounties.coop
If you have any questions about your fund with Royal London (formerly CIS), or about making Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCS), you should contact Royal London's helpline: 0345 605 7777.
Additional Information
If you are considering retiring or accessing pension benefits, please click here
Find out more
To find out more about NEST and your pension, click here.
You can find out how much is in your pension pot by logging into your NEST account. To log in to your NEST account for the first time, click here. You'll need your National Insurance number and, if possible, your NEST ID to hand. If you have already registered your account, click here to login.
How to claim it
You will be automatically enrolled when you join the Society, assuming you meet certain criteria (see above)
Your contributions into NEST will automatically be taken using salary exchange, unless you opt out of it. This means that both you and the Society pay a little less National Insurance. There are checks in place to ensure that your pay does not fall below minimum wage levels because of this. Should that be the case you will be opted out of salary exchange.
Opting Out
Opting out of NEST immediately
If you have been automatically enrolled into NEST you have a right to opt out within one month of receiving your enrolment notice. You must contact NEST directly to do this. If you opt out within the first month of enrolment, any contributions will be returned to you and you will be treated as if you never joined NEST.
Opting out of NEST at a later date
You can stop contributing to NEST at any time. If you do both yours and the Society's contributions will remain invested in your pension pot until you take your pension benefit. Currently, the earliest date that you can take them is age 55.
Re-enrolment
If a colleague opts out or leaves NEST, legislation requires all eligible jobholders to be automatically enrolled every 3 years.
Any other queries
If you have any queries that the above information does not answer, you can contact the benefits team here or check out our FAQs below.
FAQs
Please click here to view the FAQs to help new Colleagues find out about their pension options.