What you do if you want to leave a workplace pension depends on whether you’ve been ‘automatically enrolled’ in it or not.
If you have not been automatically enrolled
Check with your employer - they’ll tell you what to do.
If you’ve been automatically enrolled
Your employer will have sent you a letter telling you that you’ve been added to the scheme.
You can leave (called ‘opting out’) if you want to.
If you opt out within a month of your employer adding you to the scheme, you’ll get back any money you’ve already paid in.
You may not be able to get your payments refunded if you opt out later - they’ll usually stay in your pension until you retire.
You can opt out by contacting your pension provider. Your employer must tell you how to do this.
Reducing your payments
You may be able to reduce the amount you contribute to your workplace pension for a short time. Check with both your employer and your pension provider to see if you can do this and how long you can do it for.
Opting back in
You can do this at any time by writing to your employer. They do not have to accept you back into their workplace scheme if you’ve opted in and then opted out in the past 12 months.
Rejoining the scheme automatically
Your employer will automatically re-enrol you in the scheme. They must do this either every 3 years (from the date you first enrolled), or they can choose to do it sooner. They’ll write to you when they do this.
When you do not rejoin automatically
If you no longer qualify for the scheme, you will not be automatically re-enrolled.
If you chose to leave the scheme in the 12 months before the date you would have been re-enrolled, your employer does not have to automatically re-enrol you. But they can choose to re-enrol you.
