London- employer pension contributions?

Curious if anyone can add data point about the various % contributions/ pension arrangements  that banks in London have. I view it as extra comp and think it's important to consider aside from base + bonus.

29 Comments
 

Mine does 10% of base (without me having to contribute anything).

You can also do voluntary contributions within benefits, any additional voluntary contributions up to 4% of base the bank also matches. I opted in for this so I get 18% of base (with me sacrificing 4%)

 

Was about to say no but looked this up and apparently (depending on your income) they could be right.

https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-your-private-pension/annual-allowance

It's not really to do with it being a taxable benefit but more to do with you running out of pension tax relief allowance.

If they're saying £10k is the limit then your income is probably ~300k.

 

Damn this link just confused me even more. My base is 130k GBP but my all-in comp should definitely not be lower than 450k USD. This calculator says my allowance should be even lower

What's the point of contributing to pensions if you make above a certain threshold if they're just going to tax you on it anyways? That makes no sense at all.

 

GS: 11% non contributory.

MS:  6% non contributory, matched up to another 5%. 

JP: 6% non contributory, matched up to another 6%.

 

A1 newbie here. How much do you actually contribute?

It sounded appealing that they will match my contributions, but:
(1) Not sure how long I want to stay in the UK
(2) You only get it at age of c.55. I am shortening my life expectancy so much on the daily basis that I doubt I would ever see that money

Hence, I am contributing the least that was possible.

 

Probably gonna contribute max up to match because realistically how much QoL do you lose for contributing like 5k a year as an analyst? Not much. Works out at like £400 a month, which is actually like £250 equiv of post-tax income. So really you forego like 3k a year. Peanuts. If you think about it as an investment return, you've basically made 70% by doing nothing. Then again I plan on having a family and living to 55. And if I don't live to 55, well my family will get the pension anyway.

Someone tell me if I'm being dumb.

 

Do you know how does it work if you would like to get that pension / or its part once you move abroad?

Also, in case of the unfortunate event of your death, is your family able to get the pension if they are non-UK citizens leaving outside of the UK? 

Sorry, I come from a country where pension schemes are so bad that the optimal strategy is always to contribute the least you can and invest on your own - might have gotten carried away by this mentality despite move to the UK.

 

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