Making single pension contributions for your employees

Before you start

The Government has set limits on the amount of pension contributions your employees can make in certain circumstances before they have to pay a tax charge. These are called the annual allowance, the money purchase annual allowance and the tapered annual allowance. You can send them details about each of these limits (opens in new window) so they can understand how these apply to them before agreeing to make a single contribution.

What you’ll need to tell us

When making single contributions for your employees you should note that we’ll need to know the following:

• Written confirmation from any registered scheme administrator that you’re making a single contribution for your employees.  
• Which employees you’re making contributions for. You’ll need to give us the first name, surname, plan number and the National Insurance Number of each employee making a contribution. If you’d like to send us a spreadsheet with this information you can download a data template.   
• For each employee, letting us know how much employee and employer contribution is included.
• The total amount of the payment you'll send us. 
• How you'll make this payment, including the date you'll send it and any reference you'll include. 

We’ll apply your employees’ single contribution on the date we get all the required information and your payment.

How to make a single contribution 

You must send us the total value of your single contribution by bank transfer to our account details, using your scheme number as a reference. You should take a note of the total amount you’ve sent; the date and time you sent it and the reference you’ve used. You’ll need to tell us this information in the next step.

Things to note:

• It is important that you don’t include single contributions in your regular contribution schedule. Doing so can impact your employees’ investment dates and their right to cancel.
• Royal London will apply 20% tax relief to your employees’ single contribution, so your total single contribution should always take account of this. For example, if an employee chooses to contribute an extra £1000 into their plan, you’d send us £800.
• The limit on the combined amount of contributions made by the employee and third-parties that can receive tax relief in a tax year is the higher of £3,600 or 100% of the employee’s relevant UK earnings.
• If you've chosen to contribute towards a single contribution for your employee, your contribution will be the gross amount. Any tax relief on your contribution will be granted by Corporation Tax deductions from your company profits.
• You can only arrange to make single contributions for your employees by bank transfer from the account you usually make regular contributions from.
• Royal London can only accept single contributions paid from UK Bank accounts in Great British Pounds.

Telling us about the single contribution

Once you’ve made your bank transfer, your registered scheme administrator should use our online form to tell us the following:  

• Confirmation and details of your bank transfer.
• Details of the employees you’re making single contributions for.
• A breakdown of each of your employees’ single contribution.

If you’ve created a spreadsheet, you’ll be able to upload it through this form.

What if the employee wants to make a single contribution from their own bank account?

If your employee wants to make a single contribution from their own bank account or if a third party has agreed to make a single contribution for them, they can use our single contribution form. You can share this with your employees at any time.  They can also find this form on their mobile app.