Legal & General workplace pension: what members need to know

A Legal & General workplace pension is a pension your employer has chosen Legal & General to run. A percentage of your pay goes in automatically every payday, your employer adds its own contribution, and the government adds tax relief¹. The money belongs to you, even if you leave that employer in the future².

The most common question members ask is what happens when they change jobs. Unless you contact Legal & General, your pot automatically stays invested in your existing scheme and continues to benefit from any investment growth³. Your old employer stops contributing, but you can keep paying in yourself, and the charges that apply to your contract continue to be deducted³.

The second most common question is what it costs. Legal & General charges an Annual Management Charge for administering the pension, plus Fund Management Charges that vary with your fund choices⁴. Workplace pension fees are capped at 0.75%, which includes the fees charged by the pension providers and those charged by fund managers⁵.

What it is and who it is for

A workplace pension is a way of saving for your retirement that is arranged by your employer¹. All employers must offer a workplace pension scheme by law, and all employers must organise pensions for employees to help them save for retirement⁷. Your employer chooses the pension provider that invests your contributions².

Legal & General is one of the providers employers can choose. Where an employer has picked it, the scheme is usually a group personal pension: your employer chooses the provider, but your pension is an individual contract between you and Legal & General⁹. That distinction matters, because it means the pot is yours rather than a promise from your employer.

Legal & General also takes on defined benefit schemes through what the industry calls buyouts. Over the past 30 years, more than one million members of defined benefit pension schemes have had their pensions secured with insurance companies such as Legal & General, and where that has happened Legal & General is responsible for paying the pension¹⁰. If you are in that position, you are not in a workplace pension in the usual sense: you are a customer of an insurer paying a secured benefit.

For most readers arriving here, the relevant case is the workplace scheme. It suits anyone whose employer has selected Legal & General, whether they are newly auto-enrolled, have been a member for years, or have left the employer and still hold the pot. If you are comparing what a workplace pension is against other ways of saving, workplace pensions explained sets out the wider picture, and how a pension works covers the mechanics.

How it works

Money goes in automatically. A percentage of your pay is put into the pension scheme every payday¹. The legal minimum is 8% of your qualifying earnings, made up of 5% from you, including pension tax relief from the government, and 3% from your employer⁶. Many employers pay more than the minimum, and you can usually choose to pay more yourself.

How the tax relief reaches you depends on how the scheme is set up. Under a net pay arrangement, your employer takes your pension contribution and the government's contribution as tax relief from your pay before deducting tax, and you pay tax on what is left⁸. That means higher-rate taxpayers get their relief automatically rather than claiming it. The alternative, relief at source, works differently, and relief at source or net pay explains which arrangement gives what.

Your pot is invested in funds. Legal & General charges an Annual Management Charge for administration and Fund Management Charges that vary with your fund choices⁴. If you do not choose funds, your money goes into the scheme's default arrangement, and default funds in workplace schemes explains how those are run.

Two things change the picture over time. First, if you take unpaid leave, you and your employer continue making pension contributions, and the amount you contribute is based on your actual pay during that time¹¹. Second, if you leave, the pot stays invested and you can keep contributing whether or not you are still at the workplace where it started³. Your old employer will no longer make contributions³.

How the fees and charges work

Legal & General's workplace pension carries two kinds of charge. The Annual Management Charge covers administration of the pension. Fund Management Charges vary depending on which funds you are invested in⁴. Because the fund charge depends on your choices, the total you pay is not a single fixed number, and Legal & General's own site carries the current figures for the funds available.

The overall level is capped. Workplace pension fees are capped at 0.75%, which includes the fees charged by the pension providers and those charged by fund managers⁵. The cap applies to all ongoing charges, and therefore excludes transaction costs¹². That exclusion matters: dealing costs inside a fund sit outside the cap, so a fund with a low headline charge is not automatically the cheapest to hold.

Some things Legal & General does not charge for. It does not charge a fee for taking income, lump sums, switching investments, or transferring to another provider⁴. That is unusual enough to be worth stating plainly, because transfer and withdrawal charges are a common reason people delay moving a pot.

Charges continue after you leave. Legal & General states it will continue to deduct any charges that are relevant to your contract³. A pot left behind for years still pays its annual charge, which is the main argument for reviewing old pots rather than forgetting them.

For context, personal pensions usually take a percentage from your pension fund to cover starting and running the plan¹³. The workplace charge cap is a protection that personal pensions do not have in the same form, and workplace pension charges and the charge cap covers how the cap works in detail.

Who can apply and how to apply

You do not apply to a workplace pension in the way you apply for a personal one. Your employer enrols you, and the scheme is chosen by them. What varies is who gets enrolled automatically and who has to ask.

If you are aged between 16 and 21, your employer will not automatically enrol you, but you have the right to join if you want, with both of you contributing and possible tax relief¹⁴. The same applies if you earn more than £6,240 up to £10,000 a year and are over 16 but under 75: no automatic enrolment, but the right to join, with you and your employer both paying in¹⁴. If you have reached State Pension age but are under 75, your employer will not automatically enrol you, but you have the right to join if you want¹⁴.

If you have left the employer and want to keep paying into your Legal & General pot, you can set up payments from a personal bank account by calling 0345 070 8686³. You can also transfer in other defined contribution pensions from other pension schemes³.

Taking money out and transferring

Money in a pension pot can usually be accessed from the age of 55, rising to 57 from April 2028³. The earliest a workplace or personal pension can usually be drawn is 55, and the provider confirms the age that applies¹⁵. Depending on the scheme's rules, it may be possible to draw all or some of the lump sum and pension while still working full or part-time for the same employer¹⁶.

Under current pension rules, you can take up to 25% of your fund value tax-free at retirement, subject to allowances⁴. The rest is taxed as income when you take it, and how pension income is taxed explains how that works. If you are weighing up whether to take a lump sum or an income, your options for taking money from a pension sets them side by side, and Pension Wise offers free guidance on the choices¹⁷.

Transfers work like this. If your scheme allows, you can transfer your pension account to another UK HMRC registered pension provider at any time⁴. The first thing to do is contact your new provider to start the process and check whether they use the Origo Transfer Service⁴. Where they do, transfers usually take 5 to 10 working days after Legal & General receives the request and all the information it needs; where they do not, it is typically 15 days or more⁴. Transfers out of a drawdown or flexible access plan take longer⁴.

There are limits on partial transfers. The minimum amount you can transfer to a new provider is £2,000, and you must leave a minimum of £100 in your Legal & General pension account to keep it open⁴. If you hold money in a drawdown or flexible access plan, that money can only be transferred into a drawdown or flexible access plan elsewhere⁴.

Two tax charges apply to transfers that go wrong. A transfer to a scheme not registered with HMRC is an unauthorised payment, and you will have to pay a tax charge of 55%⁴. A transfer to a QROPS may attract a 25% tax charge depending on whether you live in the same country as the receiving scheme⁴. To start a transfer to an overseas pension, Legal & General asks members to call its Member Helpline on 0345 070 8686⁴. Your pensions if you move abroad covers the wider rules.

How your money is protected

Pension companies should ringfence your pension savings, which means that if they were to go bust, your pension would be safe¹⁹. That is the first layer of protection and it applies to defined contribution schemes generally, not just to Legal & General.

The second layer is the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Legal & General states that if you are a UK resident, your benefits should be covered by the FSCS in the unlikely event that it cannot meet its obligations¹⁰. FSCS protection does not include defined benefit pension schemes themselves, which are protected by the Pension Protection Fund²¹. The Pension Protection Fund protects millions of people in the UK who are members of defined benefit pension schemes, and it was set up in 2005 to protect members if their employer, and its pension scheme, can no longer afford to pay the promised benefits²². It is a public corporation that sits within the Department for Work and Pensions¹⁹.

If your employer goes bust, you will not lose your pension fund². That is a defined contribution protection and it is separate from the Pension Protection Fund, which covers defined benefit promises rather than invested pots. PPF vs FSCS protection sets the two apart.

Money held in your pension usually cannot be claimed by anyone you owe money to, even if you are declared bankrupt or in a formal debt repayment plan¹⁷. Once money is taken out of the pension, that protection stops: money taken out can be claimed¹⁸. If you have a public sector pension, any indexation built up from April 1978 to April 1988 is protected and will be paid by your pension scheme²².

Legal & General's own position is set out in its member communications. It states that it must, by law, always have enough funds available to meet all of its financial responsibilities, that it holds a capital surplus of several billion pounds as an additional buffer, and that it is highly rated for financial strength by all the major ratings agencies¹⁰. Those are the provider's own statements about itself.

Problems, complaints and getting help

Start with Legal & General. If the problem is not resolved, you can complain to MoneyHelper or the Pensions Ombudsman about how your workplace pension is managed². The Pensions Ombudsman deals with some complaints about the administration of workplace pensions²³, and it can look at complaints about the administration of personal and occupational pension schemes²⁴. You can make a complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman if you are unhappy with how your employer or workplace pension scheme dealt with your situation²⁵.

The Financial Ombudsman Service can help with workplace pension, personal pension or annuity complaints where the business is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority²⁶. Complaints about the state pension go to the Pension Service instead²⁶. The three most common topics of new pension complaints were contributions, retirement benefits and calculation of benefits²⁷. In the first quarter of 2026/27, the Financial Ombudsman Service opened 931 complaints about personal pensions²⁸.

Scheme rules require information about the Money and Pensions Service and the Pensions Ombudsman to be provided to a complainant at certain stages of a dispute²⁹. The Pensions Ombudsman publishes member guidance covering how to complain about a pension problem, common complaint topics, who can complain, and what it can and cannot do, including overpayments, ill-health pensions, death benefits and incorrect pension information²⁹.

Some problems go to a different body. The Pensions Regulator asks to be told about a concern that relates to a workplace pension, including dishonesty or fraud in a workplace pension scheme, or significant concerns about how the scheme is being run³⁰.

Legal & General's scam guidance covers phishing, vishing, smishing, investment and pension scams, insurance and protection scams, equity release scams and SIM swap fraud¹⁶. Pension scams: warning signs, transfers and getting help sets out the wider picture, and The Pensions Ombudsman and complaining about a pension explains how the complaint process runs from start to finish.