Defined Benefit – Contributions
We’re responsible for paying the amount required to provide benefits promised by the Defined Benefit Scheme and its administration costs.

Additional Voluntary Contributions
If you want to, you can increase your pension and/or tax-free cash by paying Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs).

If you’re an active member of the Defined Benefit Scheme, you can make additional contributions via salary sacrifice to ‘top-up’ your pension savings. For example, if you earn £30,000 per year and you make a 5% contribution (before tax and NI is deducted), the money is paid directly into your pension by the Company, and you benefit from Tax and NI savings.

These AVCs will be paid into a Defined Contribution section.

When you start drawing your benefits, the fund built up in your AVC Account can be taken as tax-free cash (subject to tax depending on the amount), used to buy an annuity (which you’d pay income tax on) from an approved insurance company, used to secure benefits within the scheme, or used to take drawdown or a combination of these options. For further information on how to draw your benefits on retirement including AVCs, contact your provider, visit Contact us.

We have made a variety of investment options available and it is your decision where your contributions are invested. For full details of the range of funds available from Fidelity, or to see how your account is currently invested, visit Fidelity PlanViewer.