Under UK law, most employees are auto-enrolled into their company's pension scheme when they join.

If you've been enrolled onto your company's pension but you do not wish to contribute towards it, it is possible to opt out from it. If you decide to opt out, both your contribution and your employer's will cease.

If you opt out within 30 days of joining, you can also get your contributions paid refunded to you. Past this deadline, the funds paid into your private pension pot will be left invested in the scheme until you reach retirement or decide to transfer to another pension scheme.

To opt out from your company's pension scheme, you'll need to opt out directly with your company's pension provider.
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1. Depending on who your pension provider is, follow their process to opt out the employee from your pension scheme:
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👉 Opt out from your Nest pension

👉 Opt out from Smart Pension

👉 Opt out from People's Pension
👉 Opt out from your Penfold Pension
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If your company is using a different pension provider, they'll likely have a how-to article explaining how to opt out too.
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2. Let your people team or manager know you've opted out from the company's pension scheme. If you use Smart or Nest, the opt-out process will happen automatically. If not they'll need to process it manually by setting the person as opted out on the Pension policy configuration.
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3. Once you've been opted out from your pension scheme, you'll receive an email from your pension provider and from us at Onfolk. This can take a couple of days depending on when you've requested the opt-out.
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4. If you're missing an opt-out confirmation (pension and/or Onfolk) after a week, get in touch with your people person at your company 👍

Your employer will need to auto-enrol you within 3 years of you opting out, this is a legal requirement.

Your employer will let you know when they auto-enrolled again. If you wish to opt out again, you can follow exactly the same process.