Do I have to pay into my occupational pension scheme or can I decline?
My HR department has recently sent us all an email saying that they will be reviewing their occupational pension scheme soon and that everyone will have to start paying into a pension due to new Pension Legislation. I wondered whether they are able to do this as I personally do not want to tie my money up under pension rules, I’d rather have the cash to pay off my debts. It seems that they are going to match our payments into a pension, which is very generous of them, but what if I don’t want any payments to go in, can I decline?
If I don’t have to pay in myself, could I still get the money that my company were going to pay into a pension, added to my salary each month? Ideally I would like to pay off my credit card debts and then start paying into a pension in a few years time but it seems like the government is forcing me to start paying in now, I assume so they can pay us less state pension in future.
Does anyone have an opinion on this as I’m getting worried about these extra payments affecting my income.