Royal London stakeholder plan (RLCIS)

The RLCIS Stakeholder Pension is a Royal London pension plan that is closed to new customers. If you already hold one, you can keep paying into it, change what you pay, take a contribution holiday, or move it to another provider. If you are looking for a stakeholder pension today, this is not one you can open.

The plan is a stakeholder pension, which means it was designed to meet conditions set out in legislation, including a cap on charges, low minimum contributions and flexibility in stopping and starting contributions¹. Royal London describes it as a plan to help build up a sum of money in a tax-efficient way to support you in retirement¹.

Royal London's own site carries the current figures for your plan.

The RLCIS Stakeholder Pension is closed to new customers

Royal London states plainly that the RLCIS Stakeholder Pension is not available to new customers¹. The same is true across the RLCIS range. The RLCIS Individual Personal Pension is no longer available to new customers³, the RLCIS With-Profits Pension Fund is closed to new policies⁴, and the RLCIS endowment policy, the RLCIS Investment Bond and the wider RL(CIS) investment products are all closed to new customers⁵.

This is a pattern across the closed-book market rather than something specific to this plan. Other providers have closed stakeholder plans to new business too: one provider states that it is not possible to open a new Stakeholder Pension Plan¹⁰, and a former Countrywide Assured portfolio is closed to new clients¹¹. The Green Deal scheme is likewise closed to new applicants¹².

What it means in practice is straightforward. Existing plan holders can continue paying in and make additional payments³. Anyone who does not already hold an RLCIS plan cannot start one, and would need to look at what other providers currently offer. Our page on stakeholder pensions explains what the wrapper is and how it differs from a standard personal pension, and personal pensions explained covers the wider market.

What the stakeholder plan offers

A stakeholder pension is a flexible personal pension¹³. It is a money purchase arrangement, so what you get at retirement depends on what has been paid in and how the investments have performed, not on a promise about your salary. Personal pension schemes, including stakeholder schemes, are provided by insurance companies, banks and building societies¹⁴, and trade unions may also offer them to members¹⁵.

The features that define the wrapper are a cap on charges, low minimum contributions, and flexibility in stopping and starting contributions². Independent guidance describes stakeholder pensions as allowing you to vary the amount you pay and when you make payments¹⁶, and official guidance describes them as having capped charges, lower minimum payments and fee-free transfers, usually with a range of funds to choose from¹⁷.

The trade-off is choice. A stakeholder pension is a simple pension plan with limited investment options and maximum annual charges that must be met¹⁸. If you want a wide fund range, that is a different kind of product. If you want something simple with a charge ceiling, this is what the wrapper was built for.

Official guidance suggests stakeholder pensions suit people with moderate earnings who think they will need to stop and start payments or vary the amount¹³. That is a description of circumstances, not a recommendation, and it applies to the wrapper generally rather than to this particular plan.

How the annual management charge works

The charge on this plan depends on when it was set up.

That split matters if you have held the plan a long time and have made top-ups at different points, because the rate that applies to a payment follows the plan it was made into rather than the date of the payment alone.

The statutory backdrop is a cap. Managers can charge fees of up to one and a half per cent of your pension fund each year for the first 10 years and after that, up to one per cent¹⁵. That is the ceiling for stakeholder plans generally, and it is why the wrapper is described as having capped charges.

Royal London states that these charges are regularly reviewed and may be changed in future². So the figure is not fixed forever, though any change has to sit within the cap that applies to this type of plan.

Paying in: regular, one-off and salary contributions

Monthly contributions are deducted either from your salary or by Direct Debit. Single contributions are payable by cheque². For a single payment, you need to send a cheque made payable to Royal London with your policy number on the reverse side¹.

To update a regular payment, tell Royal London the new total monthly contribution via your existing Direct Debit arrangement¹. You can make one-off contributions at any time to top up your plan, and you can change your regular contributions whenever you like².

When you contact Royal London about a payment, quote your full name, address and policy number, and say whether you want to make a single or a regular payment³.

The flexibility is a defining feature rather than an add-on. Official guidance confirms that you can stop, re-start or change your contributions without penalty charges¹⁵, and independent guidance makes the same point about varying the amount you pay and when you make payments¹⁶. If you are weighing up whether to keep paying into this plan or direct new money elsewhere, our comparison of combining pension pots or keeping them separate sets out the trade-offs.

Tax relief and how it is added to your plan

Royal London claims tax relief at the basic rate from HM Revenue and Customs and adds it to your plan². This is the relief at source arrangement: your pension provider claims tax relief from the government at the basic 20% rate and adds it to your pension pot¹⁹.

The effect is that a contribution costs you less than the amount that lands in the plan. If you pay tax at 20 per cent, for every £80 you pay into your pension, you get £100 in your pension pot¹⁵.

If you are a higher or additional rate taxpayer, you can claim the extra relief through your tax return². Official guidance is clear that if you pay Income Tax at a higher rate than 20%, you need to claim the extra tax relief yourself¹⁷. Scottish taxpayers have their own rates and bands, and our page on pension tax relief for Scottish taxpayers covers how that works.

The overall limit is that you get tax relief on contributions of up to 100 per cent of your earnings each year, depending on an annual allowance¹⁵. Our guide to pension tax relief explains the mechanics, and the pension annual allowance covers the ceiling itself.

Escalation: increasing contributions automatically

You can add the escalation option to your plan to automatically increase your pension contributions each year¹. The common choices are escalation of 3% or 5%, but you can choose a fixed percentage of between 1% and 10%, or in line with the Retail Prices Index¹.

Royal London publishes tables showing what different contribution levels and escalation rates might produce. The tables were last updated on 7 April 2026¹. They assume your investments will grow at 5% each year in the future, that inflation will be 2% each year, and that you will not take a lump sum at retirement; if you take a lump sum, your pension would be reduced¹. They also assume, when you retire, that you will be married to someone three years older than you if you are female, or three years younger if you are male, and that you will buy a pension that provides half of your pension to your spouse when you die¹.

Those assumptions are the provider's, and they are illustrations rather than forecasts. The figures in the tables are only estimates¹.

Stopping, pausing and changing jobs

You can stop contributing, or take a contribution holiday, at any time. You can take a contribution holiday for a total of two months in any 12 month period². The plan is built for this: flexibility in stopping and starting contributions is one of the conditions a stakeholder pension has to meet².

The consequence is arithmetic. If you stop your contributions, or take a contribution holiday, your pension savings could be lower than what you would have received if you had continued making regular contributions up to your chosen retirement date². Independent guidance makes the same point: if you stop working and stop your pension contributions, your predicted final pension amount will be lower than before²⁰.

There is a specific trap with the cover some plan holders have. Stopping contributions will also mean that any waiver of contribution cover will stop².

Changing jobs does not affect the plan. You can continue contributing to your stakeholder pension regardless of the number of times you change jobs². You must notify Royal London of any change of employer².

If your new employer moves its workplace pension to Royal London, you have the option to move your workplace pension into your Royal London plan using the workplace pension transfer service²¹. That service has an expiry date; you can still move your pension after this date but may lose benefits or features from your former pension²¹. Our page on what happens to your workplace pension when you leave a job covers the wider picture.

Waiver of contribution cover and death benefits

Waiver of contribution cover can provide cover for your pension contributions if you cannot work because of sickness or accident². If you have it, every so often Royal London will review your premium, and this could mean that the amount you pay changes¹. The cover is tied to the plan being funded: stopping contributions will also mean that any waiver of contribution cover will stop².

On death, if you die before you retire, Royal London will pay your beneficiaries the value of your plan². That is the plan value rather than a multiple of salary, which is how a defined benefit scheme usually works: if you die before taking your defined benefit pension, the scheme will usually pay out a lump sum to your spouse or civil partner, typically two or three times your salary²².

The escalation tables assume you will buy a pension that provides half of your pension to your spouse when you die¹, but that is an assumption behind the illustration, not a term of the plan itself. Our guide to what happens to your pension when you die covers nominations and the tax position, and how to nominate a beneficiary for your pension explains how to record who you want to benefit.

Statements, service and complaints

Royal London sends a pension statement each year so that you know how your plan is performing¹. That matches the general position: your pension scheme provider will usually send you a statement each year to show you how much is in your pension²⁴, and personal pension providers send annual statements telling you how much your fund is worth²⁵.

The Pensions Regulator expects trustees to send all members a pension scams leaflet with their annual pension statement, which can be a weblink rather than a hard copy²⁶. Read it. Pension scams are a live risk for anyone with a pot, and our guide to pension scams sets out the warning signs.

If something goes wrong with the plan, the route is a complaint to Royal London first, then the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are not satisfied. The Pensions Ombudsman handles complaints about how pension schemes are run. Our page on complaining about a pension provider explains how to escalate, and the Pensions Ombudsman and complaining about a pension covers the pension-specific route.

Protection: what covers this plan and where it stops

The RLCIS Stakeholder Pension is a contract with an insurer, so the protection that applies is the Financial Services Compensation Scheme rather than the Pension Protection Fund. The Pension Protection Fund covers defined benefit schemes where an employer becomes insolvent; it is not the backstop for a personal pension contract like this one. Our comparison of PPF vs FSCS protection sets out which applies to what.

The FSCS position is not uniform across the market, and it is worth knowing that a firm's failure does not automatically open the door to a claim. In one recent case, the FSCS stated that it is not open to customer claims in relation to Logic Investments Ltd¹².

There are also limits on your right to cancel. There is no right to cancel a pension annuity, a pension policy, a pension contract, or a contract to join a personal pension scheme or stakeholder pension scheme, in each case where it is funded wholly or in part from payments derived from compensation or redress following a review undertaken in relation to a complaint²⁷. Separately, there is no right to cancel where a contract is effected by the trustees of an occupational pension scheme, or the employer, trustees or operator of a stakeholder pension scheme, and represents a pension buy-out contract or certain other pension arrangements²⁸.

Where a member has lost contact with a scheme, the rules allow the trustees or manager to transfer the member's benefits without consent in defined circumstances, where no contribution has been made to the scheme by or on behalf of the member during the two calendar years before winding-up²⁹.

Where to get free help

Free, impartial guidance is available and does not sell anything. MoneyHelper covers personal pensions and the basics of how they work¹⁷. In Northern Ireland, nidirect publishes guidance on getting information and help with pensions¹⁴ and on understanding personal pensions¹³. Citizens Advice explains how to choose a personal pension¹⁶.

If you are approaching retirement and want to understand your options for taking money from the plan, Pension Wise offers free guidance. Our page on Pension Wise explains what it covers.

For anyone with a health condition affecting their ability to work, Macmillan publishes guidance on pensions and cancer²⁰. If you are dealing with debt, free debt advice is available through the debt advice charities, and our guide to debt sets out the options.