UK Pensions
Wood UK pensions home page
Workplace pension
This is a pension scheme that’s provided by your employer like Wood. There are two types of workplace pension:
- Defined Contribution (DC) – not a pension as such but a retirement account that’s based on how much money is paid into it. The contributions paid into the retirement account are invested by the pension provider. The amount available to you at retirement depends on how much has been paid in and how well the investments have performed. You could potentially get back less than you invested.
- Defined Benefit (DB) – sometimes referred to as final salary pensions. The pension you receive is based on your salary and how long you’ve worked for that employer. The amount you and the employer pay in, and the investment return has no effect on the pension value you receive.
Individual pension
Personal pensions, stakeholder pensions and self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) are all types of individual pensions.
How regularly you pay in is usually up to you, and what you get back largely depends on how well your investments perform. The value of your pension can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than what has been paid in.
Other people like your partner or employer may also be able to contribute to your individual pension.
You can pay into an individual pension at the same time as a workplace pension.
State Pension
The State Pension is a regular payment from the Government. To get a State Pension, you must first reach State Pension age, usually with at least 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record. The amount you receive is also based on your National Insurance record and you’ll normally get the full amount if you have 35 or more qualifying years of contributions.
While the State Pension probably won’t be enough to support you on its own, it can be a useful addition to your retirement income.
Wood Pension Plan
Wood’s flagship pension scheme is the Wood Pension Plan which contains both DC and DB sections. The DB section is closed both to new entrants and future service accrual but has a considerable number of deferred (no longer in employment with Wood, but yet to start to receiving their pensions) and pensioner (in receipt of their pensions benefits) members. All new members to the Plan are entered into the DC section. More details on the DB and DC sections can be found by clicking on the links.
The Wood Pension Plan is an own trust workplace pension plan and is administered by trustees who are legally independent from the employer. See Who runs the Plan?
Wood is also responsible for various legacy pension arrangements.
More information
Pensions can complicated to understand which is why Wood supports a dedicated in-house pensions team to administer the Wood Pension Plan and deliver a high quality service to the many thousands of members.
Wood Pensions Team - 01565 683 295 or email pensions@woodplc.com
The following public bodies provide free support:
Money Helper offers free impartial guidance on workplace and personal pensions, money guides, tools and calculators to help improve your finances.
moneyhelper.org.uk
Visit UK.gov for more information on your State pension entitlement.
Information about state pension
Need help finding ‘missing’ pensions, visit UK.gov.
Find a pension
The Pensions Ombudsman may investigate and determine any complaint or dispute of fact or law in relation to the pension scheme. The Ombudsman is completely independent.
pensionsombudsman.org.uk