Questions on your easyJet retirement savings
This website is to provide information to easyJet employees who are part of the Aegon Retirement Choices scheme. If you’re part of the NEST or the overseas scheme please speak to the HR team who can provide you with information about your scheme.
ARC is the name of the retirement savings product you have with Aegon. It gives you access to a pension plan so you can save for your retirement and then take an income when you retire.
Your pension plan is a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP), which in simple terms is a standard personal pension with flexibility and choice with the investments you can choose.
ARC brings many benefits including the ability to invest in a wide range of investments and gives access to other savings and investment products, including an Individual Savings Account (ISA) and a General Investment Account (GIA). ARC's range of products aims to help you make the most of your money.
You can find out more in the ARC key features document.
When you first join the scheme the contributions that you and easyJet pay into your SIPP each month will depend on your employment contract.
However, it’s up to you if you want to pay in more. You should think about the level of income you’d like in your retirement and whether the default contribution amount is likely to get you there. There's more information about this in the next section.
It's worth remembering there are risks with investing. The value of an investment can fall as well as rise and isnt guaranteed. The final value of your pension pot when you come to take benefits may be less than has been paid in.
Yes, you can change your contributions at any time after your plan has been set up. Simply email Pensions@easyJet.com and ask to go into the benefits4me system to do this.
The amount of money you’ll have to retire on will, among other things, depend on the contributions you make into your pension plan. It’s important to pay contributions into your pension plan at a rate that will allow it to provide the income you want when when you come to take your benefits - and many people underestimate this.
Retiready - your online account
Retiready gives you access to a range of digital tools to enable you to view and manage your workplace retirement savings from an easy-to-use online account.
You can use the score and goals tools on Retiready to check whether you’re likely to be on target with the contributions you’re paying.
Your Retiready Score is a number out of 100 that indicates how on track you are to getting the retirement you want. Getting your score is easy – all you need to do is type in some details of your current retirement plans – like how much you have in savings and any contributions you or your employer make. Then add the income you’d like in retirement and Retiready will give you your score.
It only takes a few minutes and no matter what your score is, Retiready has tools to help you understand what to do to make it better.
Remember, that this is just an estimate of your retirement benefits and it will, of course, depend on a number of other things including where you invest, what other savings you already have, how you're taxed, when you choose to take benefits. And remember that it’s important to contribute an amount that you feel you can comfortably afford.
When you first join the scheme your contributions will automatically be paid through salary sacrifice (also known as salary exchange). Salary sacrifice is where you give up part of your gross salary in return for a non-cash benefit, in this case, a contribution from easyJet directly into your pension.
This means that if you pay income tax or are eligible for National Insurance (NI), you don’t pay tax or NI on the amount that you sacrifice.
If you choose to make your pension contributions using salary sacrifice, easyJet will pass on half of their NI savings back to you by increasing your pension contribution.
The value of the reduction in tax and National Insurance will depend on your individual circumstances, and could change.
Find out more about salary sacrifice on our website. The information is based on our understanding of current taxation law and HMRC practice, which may change. The value of any tax relief will depend on your individual circumstances.
Things to think about
Salary sacrifice isn’t suitable for everyone. You should think about other things linked to your level of salary, for example, the amount of mortgage you can borrow or any other benefits, such as statutory maternity, paternity, sick pay, Working Tax Credit/Child Tax Credit or State Pension. If you want more information on the suitability of salary sacrifice, you should get professional financial advice - there may be a charge for this.
Salary sacrifice is part of your terms and conditions of employment and, unless you choose to opt-out, you agree to give up an amount of salary until further notice, as long as easyJet agrees to pay the same amount on your behalf as an extra contribution to your plan. Your ‘reference salary’ (ie the salary before your sacrifice for pension contributions) will still be linked to your other easyJet benefits.
You can choose to opt-out of salary sacrifice and still make pension contributions from your monthly salary, and receive basic rate tax relief automatically. If you choose to opt-out of salary sacrifice you won’t benefit from the additional NI saving contribution from easyJet, and if you pay tax at the higher or additional rate you'll need to reclaim the extra tax relief above basic rate from HMRC.
If you want to opt out, contact pensions@easyjet.com and they can give you the opt-out form to complete. You can do this at any time.
Since salary sacrifice is a contractual agreement, opting out will mean a change to your current employment contract to reflect that you're no longer giving up salary for your pension.
The money you pay into your pension is invested, and it’s the potential performance of this investment that is one of the factors that determines how much money you’ll have when you take your benefits.
It’s up to you how you invest your pension contributions. When you first join the scheme your regular contributions will be automatically invested in the scheme’s default fund (unless you joined the scheme in October 2017 as part of moving from the old Aegon scheme - the communications we sent you as part of this move will tell you the investment fund you were invested in). You can leave them invested here or if you prefer, you can choose to invest elsewhere.
Your scheme's default fund
easyJet have worked with the scheme adviser, Aon Consulting Ltd, and have chosen the
Aegon Aon Managed Core Retirement Pathway (ARC) as the default fund for your scheme.
Choosing another investment fund
If you’d prefer to invest your contributions in something different you can change your investment choice online once your plan has been set up.
Log into Retiready to find out about your investment options.
You should think carefully about where you invest as there are risks you need to consider. The value of an investment can fall as well as rise and isn’t guaranteed. You may get back less than the amount originally invested. If you are unsure if a particular fund, or switching funds is right for you, please speak to a financial adviser - there may be a charge for this.
There are three main charges that might be taken from your plan:
- Service charge – the administration charge we take to cover the cost of setting up and administering your plan. We’ve agreed a yearly service charge of 0.18%. There's a charges cap should your pension savings grow to £250,000 or more. This means your yearly service charge reduces, in percentage terms, as the value of your assets in your ARC account increases1.
Find out more about the service charge. - Investment charges – these charges are applied by the investment managers and are detailed on the investment list and on fund factsheets. The Aegon Aon Managed Core Retirement Pathway (ARC) fund, which is your scheme's default fund, has a fund charge of 0.11% each year.
- Personal adviser charges – if you have your own financial adviser, these are the charges you’ll have agreed with them for any advice they've given you.
Read more about the three main charges.
We may vary these charges. If we do, we will let you know.
1 We’ll include the value of any other eligible ARC products you have. For example, if you have an existing ARC personal pension valued at £200,000, as well as £50,000 of assets held in an ARC ISA, we'll calculate the level of your annual charge based on a total fund value of £250,000.
Paying your charges
0.25% of each contribution will be invested in a cash account called the cash facility. We’ll hold some of your contribution as cash to pay service charges, and make any other payments. Holding a small amount in cash means we don't usually have to sell units in your chosen investment funds every time a payment is due. Investment charges are taken directly from the investments you hold, and not from a cash facility.
If you’re not already a member of the scheme and are new to easyJet, you’ll be automatically enrolled into the scheme in your third pay period as detailed in your contract. You can opt in to the scheme before this date by contacting pensions@easyjet.com.
What is meant by automatically enrolled?
By law, easyJet must place most of their employees into a pension scheme which meets certain conditions in respect of these employees and make a minimum level of contribution. This is known as ‘automatic enrolment’.
You can find out more about auto enrolment from MoneyHelper.
If you don’t want to be a member of the scheme, you can opt out – that is, cancel your plan. If you do this within one month of us sending you the scheme details, you and easyJet stop contributing to the scheme and you’ll receive a refund of any contributions paid from your salary to the scheme in the next available payroll run.
If you opt out you’ll lose easyJet’s contributions and won’t be building up scheme benefits for your retirement.
If you opt out or stop contributions to the scheme – but stay with the same employer – current rules state that your employer must automatically enrol you again, usually every three years (as long as you still meet any joining conditions) - easyJet will contact you if this happens. You’ll be able to opt out again if you still don’t want to be a member of the scheme.
If you have other savings elsewhere, perhaps in a pension scheme from a previous employer, or your own personal pension, you may be able to transfer these onto ARC. The obvious benefit of bringing all your retirement savings together is that you’ll be able to manage them all in one place.
Transferring a pension may not be the best option for you. You may lose features, protections, guarantees or other benefits - so make sure you compare products before transferring. It’s up to you to decide if this is the right decision for you. If you’re not sure, speak to a financial adviser - there may be a charge for this.
It’s important to remember the value of your consolidated pension pot can still fall as well as rise and the final value of your pension pot when you come to take benefits may be less than has been paid in.
Any new funds you move your money into will have their own set of risks that will be detailed in the fund information available to you.
If you die before taking your benefits, any remaining value of your retirement savings account with Aegon could be paid to family or friends – also known as your beneficiaries.
Nominating beneficiaries
You can nominate beneficiaries online and you can find details on how to do this in the About you section of Your profile on Retiready, or complete a Nomination of beneficiaries form.
We suggest you review your beneficiaries regularly to ensure you’re still happy with who you’ve nominated
You’ll be able to log in to your Retiready account and easily see the value of your savings at a glance.
Retiready lets you view and manage your workplace retirement savings from an easy to use online account. Similar to online banking you’ll be able to see an overview of recent transactions and any investment growth, on your mobile, tablet or laptop, when it suits you. It gives you a complete picture of your retirement savings in a way that's visual and easy to understand.
It provides education and personalised coaching to help you become more knowledgeable about saving for retirement, so that you can make informed choices and take greater control of your financial future
Retiready gives you access to a range of digital tools. You can start by getting a Retiready Score, to help you understand how ready for retirement you are by answering a few simple questions. Then you can use the other tools to set yourself goals and track your progress towards being ready for retirement.
We’ll also send you a yearly statement.
Retiready is the main system you’ll use, however you may need to log in to ARC
(a separate transactional tool) to do certain transactions, such as paying a single contribution.
It’s your plan — you own it and it’s in your name for you to keep, even if you leave the company. You can:
- Continue to contribute to the plan.
- Stop paying contributions and leave your benefits where they are. Stopping contributions to your plan could affect the final amount of your savings.
- Take it with you to any scheme offered by a new employer at no additional cost — but you should get financial advice at the time and consider what benefits your new employer offers.
If you leave it with Aegon you’ll continue to receive the same service charge and you’ll be able to continue to use Retiready to monitor your Score and use Coach to help keep you on track.
easyJet has set the default target retirement age as 65.
However, you can choose to take an income from your retirement savings any time from age 55, which is currently the minimum age you can take your benefits (although you may be able to take them earlier if you’re in ill health).
The minimum age you can take your benefits is age 55 (increasing to age 57 on 6 April 2028). The State Pension age is under review and may change in the future.
You can find more information about saving for your retirement, please visit our Retiready web page.
MoneyHelper gives free and impartial guidance to help make your money and pension choices clearer.
You may also wish to speak to a financial adviser - there may be a charge for this. If you don't have a financial adviser, you can visit moneyhelper.org.uk/choosing-a-financial-adviser to find the right one for you.