Pensions Auto Re-Enrolment

It has been nine years since the University was required by law to start automatically enrolling all eligible workers (those earning £833 or more and aged between 22 and State Pension Age in the month of assessment) into a qualifying Pension Scheme. 

As part of the legislation, the University is required to ensure that any eligible workers are enrolled back into a pension scheme every three years. This means that anyone who was automatically enrolled, but then chose to opt out of the pension scheme, may be put back into a qualifying Pension Scheme. For staff on Grades 1-5 this is the University of Reading Pension Scheme (URPS) and for staff on Grade 6 and above this is the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). 

For more information about URPS please visit this HR page. Please visit the USS website for information about the scheme.

We will carry out this triennial assessment as part of the July payroll run and anyone who meets the eligibility criteria will be entered into pension scheme membership effective from 1 July 2022.  This means that contributions will be deducted from your July pay if you are put into a pension scheme.

If you are automatically enrolled into a pension scheme you will be contacted directly by the relevant pension scheme administrators, in writing, after enrolment has taken place. After enrolment, you can opt out if you want to, but it’s worth remembering that if you pay into the pension, the University will too. In addition, any contributions you make into the scheme will be eligible for tax relief.  And don’t forget that members have life insurance cover too.

Please note that you are not able to opt out of the pension scheme until you receive confirmation that you have joined.  This means that if you are auto-enrolled, contributions will be taken from your July pay. 

Further information can be found on the HR auto-enrolment webpages  .  If you have any questions about how this may affect you, please contact the Pensions Office on pensions@reading.ac.uk.