What it costs

Saving for your retirement might cost less than you think, especially if you contribute through salary exchange and make the most of Lloyd's Register's Company contributions. Use the Pensions Calculator to see what your retirement savings might look like in the future.

What is salary exchange?

Your contributions into the DC Section are based on a percentage of your pensionable salary and they're taken directly from your monthly pay unless you choose salary exchange. Your pensionable salary is your basic annual salary from Lloyd's Register, adding back in any salary you've given up for childcare or cycle-to-work schemes.

You can make your contributions by salary exchange instead. This means that you agree to exchange part of your salary in turn for contributions to your pension account. This means that both you and Lloyd's Register make National Insurance (NI) savings, so you should see an increase in your overall pay packet.

How salary exchange works:

Salary exchange doesn't work for everyone — for example, if you're over State Pension age, earning close to the Lower Earnings Limit for National Insurance, earning close to the National Minimum Wage or working outside the UK. We'll let you know if this applies to you.

If you don't want to contribute through salary exchange, or if it's not beneficial to you, you still benefit from tax relief because you don't pay tax on any contributions you make in any one year up to the Annual Allowance.

Your contributions

You can pay between 3% and 8% of your pensionable salary into your DC Section account. Lloyd's Register will also contribute up to a maximum of 15%.

This table shows you the DC Section contribution breakdown, and also the savings you could make by paying in through salary exchange.

Selected contribution rate Salary exchange savings Actual cost Employer contributions Total Contributions
Ordinary Contributions 3% 0.25% 2.75% 10% 13%
4% 0.5% 3.50% 11% 15%
5% 0.5% 4.50% 12% 17%
6% 0.75% 5.25% 13% 19%
7% 0.75% 6.25% 14% 21%
8% 1% 7% 15% 23%

Your annual benefit statement contains a breakdown of your contributions, the value of your DC Section account, and a projection of what it might be worth at your Normal or Selected Retirement Age. It's worth considering increasing your contributions to stay on track for your retirement income goal.

You can increase your contribution rate to make the most of Lloyd's Register's matching by logging in to Lifelens from Connect on your work computer.

Watch this handy video to find out how you can change your contributions.

Additional employee contributions

You can really boost your retirement income by paying additional employee contributions into your pension each month. Use the pension calculator to see what increasing your contributions might look like for your future retirement savings.

You can set up Additional Employee Contributions via Lifelens or by contacting Group Pensions. When you make contributions above 8%, Lloyd's Register's contribution remains at 15%.

Contribution limits

There are certain limits on how much money you can pay into your pension and qualifying for tax relief — in other words, you don't pay tax on your contributions until you exceed these limits.

The Annual Allowance (AA) is the amount of money you can pay into your pension(s) every year and qualify for tax relief. The current AA is £40,000 for the 2022/2023 tax year.

Under pensions flexibilities introduced in 2015, your AA gradually drops to a minimum of £4,000 if you access any defined-contribution savings you have before you retire, this is called the Tapered Annual Allowance (TAA).

The new flexibilities are only available to LRSFA members once you leave the Scheme. But you may have other pensions where this applies. If you think you may be affected by the TAA, you may want to take financial advice. You can find an adviser near you on Unbiased.

The Lifetime Allowance (LTA) is the amount of money you can pay into all your pensions during your working life that qualifies for tax relief. The LTA for the 2022/2023 tax year is £1.055m.