About Automatic enrolment

Boots pensions

About automatic enrolment

Depending on certain criteria to do with your age and salary, you may be automatically enrolled into the AE Scheme without needing to make any decisions. This is called automatic enrolment.

Who is affected by automatic enrolment?

You will be automatically enrolled if you are an employee on our UK payroll (including temporary employees) and you:

are not currently a member of a qualifying scheme, such as the BRSP;
earn over £10,000 a year (the Government’s threshold for 2023/24);
are aged 22 or over but under State Pension age; and
work, or usually work, in the UK.

When are new employees automatically enrolled?

If you meet the above criteria, you will be automatically enrolled into the AE Scheme after your third monthly pay period (or after 13 weeks if paid weekly) following your start date.

Even if you do not qualify for automatic enrolment, you can still join the AE Scheme or BRSP if you want to start saving for retirement. However, in this case you may not be entitled to the employer contribution.

Once you have worked for the company for three months, you will have the option to join the BRSP.

You can find out more about automatic enrolment, including what happens if you opt out, here.

Key features

As the AE Scheme is a section of the BRSP, they work in a similar way. When you join, an individual Retirement Savings account is set up in your name. Contributions from you and your employer are credited to this account and invested to build up over the years. The value of your account will then be used to provide benefits when you retire.

The Legal & General Key Features document has a lot more detail about how our plan works.

Choice: Contributions will be invested in the Default Fund, but you can select a different fund or funds once you become a member.
Choice: You choose how to take your benefits – generally you will be able to take a mix of cash and regular income.
Financial support*: Your employer makes a contribution to your retirement savings, helping you save even more for your future.
Portability: If you leave the company your employer’s contributions will cease, but you can continue to pay into the Scheme. Alternatively, you may be able to transfer the funds you have built up into another scheme.

There are, however, some important differences:

Membership: BRSP: You can choose to join once you have completed three months’ service. Entry is on the 1st day of the following month.
AE Scheme: If you are not already a member of the BRSP and meet the eligibility criteria you will be automatically enrolled.
Your contributions: BRSP: You decide how much to save – from 3% to 6% of your Retirement Savings Pay. You can pay in more, but it will not be matched by your employer.
AE Scheme: You pay 3% of Band Earnings until 2019, when it will increase to 5%. These rates are fixed, so you cannot pay in less or more.
Your employer’s contributions*: BRSP: Your employer will match your savings by up to 6% of your Retirement Savings Pay.
AE Scheme: Your employer will pay 2% of your Band Earnings, rising to 3% in 2019.
Life assurance cover: BRSP: You get life cover of four times (4x) your annual Retirement Savings Pay, rising to five times (5x) after you have been a member for five years. (This benefit ceases at age 75.)
AE Scheme: Not provided.

Boots pensions