NOW: Pensions

NOW: Pensions is a workplace pension scheme used by over 20,000 employers and with over two million members¹. If your employer chose it, that is how you ended up in it: employers must automatically enrol eligible staff into a pension and contribute, and the scheme they pick is the one you are put into². You cannot join it on your own, because it is not sold directly to individuals.

It is a master trust, which means a defined contribution pension used by many unrelated employers, run by independent trustees who look after members' savings¹. All master trusts must be authorised by The Pensions Regulator and are reviewed regularly; there were 33 authorised master trusts in 2024¹. Your money goes into a default investment plan unless you choose otherwise, and it is lifestyled in the ten years before your planned retirement age¹.

This page covers what the scheme offers, how you join, the investment plans and the default, how lifestyling works, how charges are taken, how to read your statement, how the scheme is authorised and protected, and what happens when your circumstances change.

What NOW: Pensions offers: a workplace pension for over two million members

NOW: Pensions is a single product type: a workplace pension. It is a defined contribution scheme, so the value of your pot at retirement depends on how much you and your employer have contributed, and how well the underlying investments have performed⁵. There is no promise of a set income, unlike a final salary scheme.

It sits in a large market. Over 23 million people are saving into a workplace pension following automatic enrolment, and over £2 trillion of assets are managed by the UK workplace pensions system⁶. Over 16 million workers have defined contribution pensions⁸. Within that, master trusts are the model most employers now use, because they let many unrelated employers share one scheme and its costs³.

For a member, the practical points are these. Your employer pays in alongside you. Your pot is invested in funds you can choose between, or left in the default. You get a statement each year. And the scheme is run by trustees rather than by your employer, which matters if your employer gets into difficulty.

If you want the wider picture on how these schemes work, how contributions are calculated and what you can do with a pot at retirement, the pensions guide covers it. If you are comparing the scheme your employer chose with what else is available, the pension and investment providers directory lists the firms operating in this market.

How you join: enrolled through your employer

You do not apply to NOW: Pensions. Your employer must automatically enrol you into a pension scheme and make contributions if you are eligible for automatic enrolment². All employers have to offer a pension scheme and contribute a set amount of your wage⁴. If your employer uses NOW: Pensions, that is the scheme you land in.

There is a second route in. If you are not eligible for automatic enrolment, you can still ask to join, and if you do, your employer has to enrol you and pay into it⁹. So a worker on a lower income, or in a job that does not meet the eligibility rules, can opt in rather than being shut out.

A few things change the picture:

• Contributions continue while you are paid, but if you are not getting paid during maternity leave, your employer does not have to make pension contributions unless your contract provides for it¹⁰.
• Employers do not pay National Insurance on pension contributions, but employees and self-employed people do¹¹.
• Some employers offer personal pensions as workplace pensions instead of a master trust, so the scheme you are enrolled into depends on what your employer has set up¹².

If you are self-employed, not working, or want to save more than your workplace scheme allows, a personal pension or stakeholder pension is the route, arranged directly with a provider¹³. Those are not NOW: Pensions products.

Investment plans and the default lump sum plan

When you join the scheme, your money is automatically placed into the 'lump sum' plan¹. That is the default. Any scheme used for automatic enrolment must have a default investment arrangement, and all pension providers have to offer a fund that meets the needs of most people, which is where your money goes unless you say otherwise¹⁵.

Defaults matter because most people never move. Around 90% of pensions are saved in default funds¹⁷. The default is designed for a member who does not engage, which is why it is built around a target rather than a personal plan.

NOW: Pensions offers six investment plans and one investment fund¹. The plans differ in what they assume about how you will take your money, which is the key decision: whether you expect to buy an income, take lump sums, or something in between. Choosing a plan that does not match how you actually take your pot is the main risk of picking your own.

If you are weighing up whether to move out of the default, the investing guide explains how funds, risk and time horizons fit together. The scheme's own documents set out what each plan invests in and who it suits.

Lifestyling: how your savings change as retirement approaches

Ten years before your planned retirement age, your savings move into investments designed to prepare your money for retirement, including reducing investment risk¹. This is lifestyling, and it happens automatically.

The idea is straightforward. As you approach retirement, most pension providers shift you into lower-risk investments such as bonds, in a process known as lifestyling¹⁷. Some pension schemes gradually move your money into lower-risk investments as you get nearer retirement age¹⁶. You can also ask your provider to do this gradually if it is not automatic¹⁸.

The trade-off is real. Lower-risk investments are less likely to fall sharply just before you need the money, but they also tend to grow more slowly. If you plan to keep your pot invested well into retirement rather than buying an income at a set date, a lifestyling path aimed at a retirement date may not match what you intend to do.

Timings differ between schemes. The People's Pension, for example, starts switching from higher-risk to lower-risk investments from 15 years before your chosen retirement date, compared with the 10 years NOW: Pensions uses¹. Neither is right or wrong; they are different assumptions about how cautious to be and how early.

How the charges work

NOW: Pensions takes its charges in two parts: a monthly administration charge of £2, and an annual investment management charge of 0.3% on the value of your pension¹. The first is a flat amount, so it weighs more heavily on a small pot. The second is a percentage, so it grows as your pot grows.

That structure is typical of workplace schemes. Personal pension providers usually take a percentage from your pension fund to cover starting and running the pension¹⁴. Defined contribution scheme providers often charge an amount based on the value of the pension¹⁹.

Two things are worth knowing about charges generally. First, pension charges have been reducing over time, so new schemes might have lower charges than old schemes²⁰. If you are comparing a NOW: Pensions pot with one you built up years ago elsewhere, the older one may be the more expensive of the two. Second, charges are not the only cost of a pension. If you take advice on a £100,000 pension pot, you could expect to pay between £1,000 and £3,000 initially²¹. That is a separate cost from the scheme's own charges.

The scheme's own documents give the current figures and any fund-specific costs, and those are the numbers to check rather than any figure quoted second-hand.

Benefit statements and the key features leaflet

Your fund should send you a pension statement once a year that tells you how much your pension pot is worth²². That statement is the starting point for any decision about the pot, because it shows what you have, what has gone in, and what it is projected to produce.

Alongside the annual statement, schemes send a pension scams leaflet. Trustees should send all members the pension scams leaflet, which is a PDF of 257kb and 2 pages, with their annual pension statement²³. A separate version of the leaflet is a PDF of 183 KB and 2 pages²⁵. The point of it is to put the warning in front of you at the moment you are most likely to be contacted by someone offering to "review" or "unlock" your pension.

If you have lost track of a scheme, the Pension Tracing Service helps people find contact details for workplaces and personal pension schemes²⁶. Pensions dashboards, when they arrive, will be online services allowing people to access their pension information in a clear and simple form⁶.

Master trust authorisation and how your pension is protected

A master trust is a type of defined contribution pension used by multiple employers, with independent trustees who look after pension savings on behalf of all the employees who are members¹. Master trusts are trust-based occupational pension schemes that seek economies of scale by serving multiple employers who may be entirely unrelated³.

The Pensions Regulator is responsible for authorising and supervising master trusts against five criteria³. All master trusts must be authorised by The Pensions Regulator and are subject to regular reviews¹. There were 33 authorised master trusts in 2024⁴.

On the money itself, pension companies should ringfence your pension savings, which means that if they were to go bust, your pension would be safe²⁸. That is the core protection for a defined contribution pot. It is not the same as the protection that covers deposits in a bank, and it is not the Pension Protection Fund, which covers defined benefit schemes rather than pots like this one²⁸.

The limit of the protection is worth stating plainly: any savings in a pension that is not approved will not be protected²⁹. That is why the authorisation status of a master trust is not a technicality. It is the thing that stands between your pot and a scheme that fails.

If you are thinking about moving a pot in or out, free, impartial information about transferring your pension is available³⁰. The consumer protection guide sets out how the different protection regimes fit together, and the scams and fraud guide covers how pension scams typically work.

The gender pensions gap and NOW: Pensions research

Women have lower pensions wealth than men, and estimates show the gender pensions gap to be larger than the gender pay gap³¹. There is no official measure of the gender pension gap, but it is generally understood to refer to the differences in retirement outcomes for men and women³¹. The gap can mean the differences in retirement income or retirement wealth for men and women¹¹.

The government's own statistics put the gender pensions gap in private pensions at 48% for those nearing retirement, and a 48% difference between men and women aged 55 to 59³². The Department for Work and Pensions has said the gender pension gap is "mainly caused by inequality in the labour market, including differences in working patterns and earnings"³⁴. Official analysis covers Great Britain and has been published for the periods 2018 to 2020 and 2020 to 2022, with breakdowns by age band and pension scheme type³⁵.

NOW: Pensions has sponsored research in this area. The Underpensioned series is sponsored by now:pensions³⁷. That is a sponsorship of independent research rather than a finding by the scheme itself, and the figures above come from government statistics rather than from the sponsor.

The practical relevance for a member is that time out of work, part-time hours and lower earnings all feed into a smaller pot, and the effect compounds over decades. The pensions guide covers the options for topping up, and the benefits guide explains Pension Credit, which you can claim whether or not you are still working and without having paid any National Insurance contributions³⁸.

What happens to your pot when your circumstances change

When you change jobs your pension belongs to you¹⁰. The pot stays invested in your name, and your old employer stops contributing. You have three broad options: leave it where it is, transfer it to your new employer's scheme, or combine it with other pots you have built up.

Pensions opened since 2017 do not have any exit penalties, but you might pay as much as 1% if you leave an older scheme²⁰. That charge applies to the older scheme, not to a modern one, so it is worth checking the date on any pot you are thinking of moving.

Defined contribution pensions are affected by the pension freedom changes, which is why the pot is yours to direct rather than being converted into a set income automatically³⁹. You can take up to 25% of your pot tax-free, up to a maximum of £268,275 across all your pensions⁴⁰. A whole pension pot worth up to £10,000 can be taken as a lump sum⁴¹.

If you are dealing with debt, the picture is more specific. Any savings in a pension that is not approved will not be protected, but approved pension savings are treated differently from other assets in insolvency²⁹. Free help is available from debt advice charities, and the debt guide sets out the options.

How to contact NOW: Pensions and complain

Contact NOW: Pensions through your online account or the details on its own website for anything routine: checking your pot, changing your investment plan, updating your address, or nominating beneficiaries. Your employer's payroll team is the right route for questions about contributions that have not appeared.

If something has gone wrong, complain to the scheme first. If you are not satisfied with the response, the Pensions Ombudsman can look at pension complaints. Its member guidance hub covers how to complain about a pension problem, common pension complaint topics, who can complain to the ombudsman, and what it can and cannot do⁴². Free, impartial help with pension problems is available from services including the Pensions Ombudsman and MoneyHelper⁴³.