I just received an email from the agency’s chosen pension provider. There’s a couple of things that I found amusing, though one of those I’m not sure whether it’s right or not.
Firstly, it made me laugh that the agency have elected to postpone the start date till after the project ends. It does say you can write and insist on it starting immediately.
But also, and this I’d like your opinions on; any AVC’s made, have to be paid directly to the pension company and are not deducted at source. The agency does not also match the contribution. Every other employment pension I have signed up for have matched the AVC’s.
Makes no difference if it’s at source or not because they won’t be using salary sacrifice and the pension provider will apply for the tax relief. If you’ve had employers who match the AVCs then lucky you but you won’t find many agencies or in fact many haulage companies who offer any more than the bare minimum they’re legally required to to comply withe Workplace Pensions regulations.
The agency won’t have postponed the start date til after the project ends, they’ll not start contributions until you’ve been there up tp 3 months as they’re entitled to under the regs.
Thanks for the reply. Guess I’ve been lucky then! All the transport companies & agencies I’ve been working with who have offered a pension scheme have also included matched AVCs.
I don’t pretend to know too much about how these things work, so thanks for the tax relief info.