Univar Pension Scheme FAQs

A pension is a tax-efficient way of saving money that you can use to live on when you’re no longer working. In a workplace pension, like the DC Section of the Univar Company Pension Scheme, both you and your employer pay into the Scheme.

There are lots of different types of pension schemes. Workplace pension schemes are set up by employers to help their employees save for retirement. Both you and your employer pay into this type of pension. With workplace pensions, you can get defined contribution (DC) schemes and defined benefit (DB) schemes. The Univar Company Pension Scheme has a DC Section which is open to new members and a DB Section, which is closed to new members.

You can also join a personal pension, where you pay into the pension but your employer doesn’t.

All employees are contractually enrolled into the Scheme and there are a lot of good reasons to be in your workplace pension. Firstly, your employer helps you save for retirement by paying money into your pension (on top of the money you pay in yourself). If you opt out of the workplace pension, you wouldn’t get this extra contribution.

Another reason to stay in the Scheme is that the government also wants to help people save for the future, so you don’t pay tax on your pension contributions, which means it costs you less than you think. If you’re a basic rate taxpayer, every £1 you pay into your pension actually only costs you 80p. Paying your contributions using salary sacrifice reduces the cost of every £1 to 68p.

In addition to this ‘free money’, being in a workplace pension is easy. Your employer sets it all up for you, so you don’t have to think about setting up direct debits or any of the other hassles you might have in taking out a personal pension.

Your entitlement to a State pension depends on how many qualifying years of National Insurance (NI) contributions you’ve got. To receive any State pension at all, you must have a minimum of 10 qualifying years. To get the full State pension, you’ll need to have 35 qualifying years. If you have between 10 and 35 years of NI contributions, you’ll get a proportionate amount of State pension. To find out how much you’re entitled to, you can use the government website to check your State pension. 

In 2012, it became compulsory for employers to automatically enrol eligible employees into a workplace pension and for both the employer and employee to make contributions towards it. Once enrolled, employees have the option to leave the Scheme (opt out).

If you opt out of the Scheme, the Company will have to automatically re-enrol you every three years or when you reach a certain age or salary levels.

While you’re a member, you build up a pot of money called your Pension Fund during your employment, made up of contributions from you and the Company. These contributions are invested with the aim of increasing your personal account over time.

If you have questions related to your DC pension you can contact Aegon by following this link

A board of Trustees is responsible for the administration of the Scheme in accordance with legislation and the Scheme Rules. Some of the Trustees are selected by Univar and some are nominated by the Scheme’s members.

Find out more about the Trustees here

You can use Target Plan to check the contributions paid into your personal account by you and by Univar Solutions, how your investments have performed, your prospective pension and options at retirement and your death benefits. You can check the value of your pension pot at any time by logging into Target Plan.

New employees are automatically enrolled into the DC Section, but it’s not a condition of your employment to be or remain a member of the Scheme. To opt out, you need to log into yourpersonal account using My account.

If you’ve got a complaint, you have a number of options

For DB related complaints you can either contact the Scheme administrator, Barnett Waddingham ([email protected]) or raise a ticket with the HR team via the intranet.

For DC related complaints you can contact AEGON at [email protected]

If you are not sure if your complaint is DC or DB related you can raise a ticket using AskHR

The minimum member contribution is 3% of your pay, which is double matched by the Company.

Your contributions are also eligible for tax and NI relief, so each £1 you save costs 68p (for a basic rate taxpayer).

The money paid in by you and the Company is added to your personal account, which is kept separate from the Company’s assets. It is overseen by the Trustees and invested.

No, you can pay via deduction from salary instead, but you’d then pay National Insurance on the value of your contributions.

You can’t participate in salary sacrifice if it would result in reducing your salary to below the National Minimum Wage (or National Living Wage, if you’re over 25). It’s also not possible to sacrifice statutory pay, for example on maternity, paternity, adoption or sick leave.

Yes, you can pay up to 100% of your salary in any month if you wish, but the Company will only match up to 4% of your contributions.

The government places a limit on the tax-free amount of money that can be saved into a pension each year. This is currently £60,000 a year. You can save more than this into your pension in a year, if you wish, but any contributions above this amount would not receive tax relief. Your Annual Allowance may also be reduced if you earn more than £200,000 a year.

If you took money from your pension before 6 April 2024, it counted towards the lifetime allowance (LTA) instead. 

The LTA was the maximum amount you could save into a pension without needing to pay additional tax. This was £1,073,100 when it ended on 5 April 2024.  

Yes, you can change your contribution rate at any time by completing a Contributions change form. You can get a copy of this form by raising a ticket through the Ask HR system.

The contributions from you and from Univar are invested in your choice of lifestyle investment option or in your chosen self-select funds. The value of your personal account can therefore go down or up at any point in time depending on the performance of the financial markets.

You can choose and manage your investment choices by logging into Target Plan. There are a range of LifePath and Core funds for you to choose from. If you're not sure which investments are right for you, research the funds available by selecting a fund name and reading the fund factsheet. If you're at all unsure, contact Aegon Assist for guidance or if you need advice, please contact a financial adviser - there may be a charge for this. If you don't have a financial adviser, you can find the right one for you with MoneyHelper.

The value of investments can fall as well as rise and isn't guaranteed. The final value when you come to take your benefits could be less than has been paid in.

Yes, you can make changes to the way your personal account is invested at any time. Simply login to Target Plan and select Switch funds.

This is the age at which you plan to take your Scheme benefits. It can be any age after 55. It’s really important to tell us your target retirement age so that the gradual de-risking of your personal account matches when you want to retire.

Neither Univar nor the Trustees can give you advice. If you need further information and guidance, the Money and Pensions Service is the government’s free information website, or you can find an independent financial adviser local to you at www.vouchedfor.co.ukorwww.unbiased.co.uk.

The DC Section is a defined contribution pension scheme which means that you won’t know exactly how much your benefits will be until you retire. It depends on the amount of money that’s paid into your personal account as contributions along with how your investments have performed.

Your annual benefit statement will give you an estimate of your prospective pension at retirement.

The earliest you can take your benefits from the DC Section is 55. The government is planning to raise this minimum retirement age to 57 by 2028.

If you leave the Scheme before age 55, no further contributions are paid into your personal account and your benefits will be ‘deferred’.

Yes, you can take the value of your personal account with you to a new employer’s scheme or another registered pension arrangement, provided you haven’t started to receive your benefits.

You can take the money that has built up in your personal account at any time from the age of 55. The government is planning to raise this minimum retirement age to 57 by 2028.

Yes, you can access your benefits at any time after the age of 55 and continue to work. However, once you have accessed your DC benefits flexibly, either through taking a lump sum or income drawdown, if you continue to save into a new pension, the amount of tax-free pension savings you can make is likely to be restricted.

You can take up to 25% of your personal account as a tax-free cash lump sum. You can then use the rest in the way that suits you best. You can choose to purchase an annuity (a guaranteed income), set up a drawdown account, or take it as taxable cash.

Guaranteed income products are more familiarly known as annuities. You can choose to buy one that will last as long as you live (a lifetime annuity) or for a fixed term (a fixed term annuity). Read our full guide on annuities.

Please note however that it is vital you understand all the options available to you before making your decision.

If you want a flexible income, consider an income drawdown pension - also known as flexi-access drawdown. This lets you keep your money invested and gives you full access to take an income and or lump sums from your investments when you need to. As the name suggests, it gives you significant flexibility over how you take your pension benefits, but there are risks you should be aware of.

Read our full guide on income drawdown .

The value of your personal account at the date of your death is paid to your beneficiaries as a lump sum.