UK Pension Guidance National Information - 15:27 21/02/24

The following guidance has been provided by Citizens Advice:

Auto-Enrolment Workplace Pensions
Workplace pensions are schemes that help to save money towards your retirement. Those who meet certain criteria while working here in the UK will be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension scheme. They are those that:

• Are over the age of 22, but under state pension age (which you can check here)
• Are not already enrolled in a pension scheme
• And earn over a certain threshold (£10,000 per year for the 2023/24 financial year)
o Those who earn over £6,240 per year (2023/24 financial year), but under £10,000 can choose to opt in, but will not be enrolled automatically.

The minimum amount that is paid when on an auto-enrolment scheme is 5% of your earnings by you as an employee (which also includes tax relief from the government), and your employer has to pay the equivalent of 3% of your earnings on top.
Once money is paid into this type of pension, it will not usually be accessible until you are at least 55 (the age is increasing to 57 by 2028). It can be accessed and claimed from abroad, considering the need to contact a UK organisation and communicate in English.
As guests in the UK under the Ukraine Visa schemes, you may be considering your options regarding the auto-enrolment schemes. It is always advised to consider carefully your options when it comes to pensions, and if you were to opt-out of the auto-enrolment scheme, to ensure that you know all of your options first and the advantages and disadvantages of staying and or opting out.

It may be worth considering getting formal financial advice before deciding.
You can always seek free and impartial pension advice from Money Helper, which is run my HM
Government. They have various methods of contact, ranging from telephone and email through to
social media channels:
• Free pensions guidance
• https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/contact-us/pensions-guidance
If you would like to find out more, and understand auto-enrolment pensions in more detail, the
following pages may be of assistance:
• Auto-enrolment pensions: an introduction (Via the governments Money Helper site, part
of the Money & Pensions Service)
• https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/auto-enrolment/automaticenrolment-an-introduction
• Workplace pensions
• https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/pensions/types-of pension/workplacepensions/