If your employer is providing access to a stakeholder pension
scheme, you can ask them to deduct your pension contributions
direct from your pay. You will need to tell your employer
how much you want to pay in and agree with them how often.
You can also choose to join a different stakeholder pension
scheme from the one your employer is providing access to (unless
your employer is exempt). If you did this, it would be your
responsibility to pay your contribution direct to the stakeholder
pension scheme. The scheme provider would tell you how to
pay in.
Stakeholder pensions are flexible. If you want to increase,
reduce or stop your contributions, you can. This flexibility
means you can change how much you pay, or how often, without
having to pay an extra charge. However, if you are paying
your contributions through your employer, you may only be
able to change the amount you pay every six months.
Stakeholder pension schemes are not allowed to make extra
charges if you stop paying, or if you want to transfer to
another scheme.
You can also carry on paying into a stakeholder pension if
you stop working but you can still afford to make pension
contributions.
If your circumstances improve, you can increase the amount
of money you pay into your stakeholder pension, in line with
the overall tax limits.
Your stakeholder pension will be based on how much money
you have contributed and how well the fund has grown through
investment performance. So, if possible, it will be better
if you can make regular payments into your stakeholder pension.