How money goes into your pension pot

The Retirement Savings Plan

The Retirement Savings Plan is a way for you to save towards the retirement you want.

Any money you put into the Plan goes into a pot that's allocated to you.

How much you can save into the Plan

You can save an amount worth between 11% and 25% of your pensionable earnings from your Benefits Envelope. So if your pensionable earnings were £20,000, then over 12 months you could save between £2,200 and £5,000.

If you don't want to save 11% or more, you'll need to opt out of the Plan.

If you want to save more than 25%, then you'll need to put in the extra from your pay.

If you don't make a choice, then you'll save an amount worth 15% of your pensionable earnings automatically, from your Benefits Envelope.

Check your tax allowances

The Annual Allowance is the amount of money that can go into all your registered pension pots before a tax charge could arise. If you exceed this allowance, you may have to pay tax on the extra savings made.

The Lifetime Allowance is the total amount of registered pension scheme benefits you can build up over your working life before a tax charge may arise and is usually tested when you access your pension savings.

From 6 April 2023, the tax charge if you exceed this allowance is not currently being applied.

Making extra contributions

You can also put some of your salary into the Retirement Savings Plan, if you want to. This is called making Extra voluntary contributions.

You can either make Extra voluntary contributions regularly, or you can save a one-off amount into the Plan.

If you'd like to make Extra voluntary contributions regularly, you might want to use the Unilever Contribution Arrangement - also known as salary sacrifice. Doing this saves you income tax, as well as saving you and the company National Insurance.

To start, stop, or change your Extra voluntary contributions during the yearly election window, go to My Reward. At any other time, you can change them if they don't use the Unilever Contribution Arrangement - fill in this form.

To see the effect of making Extra voluntary contributions, use our modeller.

Transferring money from other pension schemes

If you want to, you may be able to transfer money into the Plan from other pensions you have. You can only do this while you’re still working for Unilever and saving into the Plan, and if the Trustees agree.

To transfer money into the Plan contact Fidelity.