Joining the scheme

There are two ways to join the Whitbread pension scheme. You either opt in to the scheme, or you join automatically. ‘Opt in’ just means choosing to join.

Opting in to the scheme

Everyone can opt in to the Whitbread pension scheme. To opt in, all you have to do is go to Dayforce.

Joining the Whitbread pension scheme automatically

Some people join automatically. Whether or not you join automatically depends on your age and how much you earn. (You can find out more about auto-enrolment in the FAQs.) If you join automatically, we’ll write to you after the first payment has gone from your pay into your pension, to tell you that you’ve now joined.

If you want to stay in the scheme, then you don’t have to do anything. If you don’t want to stay in the scheme, then you can opt out. When we write to you, we will explain how to do this. As long as you opt out within one month, you will get back any money you’ve paid into your pension. You get this money back through your pay.

Why have a pension?

A company pension is one of the best ways to build up money for when you retire. There are lots of good reasons to stay in our scheme:

Whitbread also pays money into your pension – this is on top of the money you pay in yourself. If you didn’t have a pension, you wouldn’t get this extra money.

If you pay tax, you get to keep some of the money you’d otherwise pay in tax to the government. It goes into your pension instead, which means you see more of the money you earn.

The money you put in your pension comes straight out of your pay – so you’re not tempted to spend it.

How it works

Once you join the scheme, Whitbread sets up a pension pot in your name. Every time you get paid, some of your pay goes into this pot. Whitbread pays some money in too.

This money is pooled together with lots of other pension savers’ money into something called a fund. This fund is invested to help it grow. Any money that the investments make is shared between the members of the fund and added to your pot.

When you retire, you can use the money you’ve built up either to give yourself an income, or you can take it as cash.

What it costs

When you’re first enrolled into the scheme, you’ll be put into the Auto-enrolment Section. You’ll pay 5% of everything you earn in a month between £520 and £4,189 (known as your qualifying earnings). This includes any overtime and bonus you earn. Whitbread will pay in 3%.

You can pay in more if you want to, by joining the Pension Options Section. If you pay in more, so does Whitbread – and you’ll get valuable death and ill-health benefits that you don’t get in the Auto-enrolment Section. Find out how to save more here.

If things change

What happens if you leave Whitbread?
The money saved in your pension pot is yours. If you leave Whitbread, you can keep your savings in the scheme until you’re ready to take them. Otherwise, you can transfer them to another pension scheme, for example, with your new employer or into a personal pension plan.

If you’re over age 55 when you leave Whitbread, the other option is to take your savings either as income or cash.

What happens if you die?
If you die, we’ll pay your pension pot out as a cash amount. You can tell the pension scheme Trustees who should get your pension money by logging on to OneView and clicking on the Beneficiaries tab. The Trustees aren’t bound by your choice, but they will take your wishes into account when making their decision.

If you die while you're working at Whitbread and you’re in the Pension Options Section, we also pay an extra amount equal to 4 x your annual basic pay before tax.

Please make sure you check your nominated beneficiaries from time to time to confirm your wishes are still up to date. You can make changes at any time – and you should update it if your circumstances change, for example, if you get married or divorced, enter or leave a civil partnership, or become a parent.

Sign up to OneView

When you become a member of the scheme, the company that runs our pension scheme (Aptia) will send you details of how to register for OneView.

OneView is the easy way to keep track of your pension savings online, change your investments and update your beneficiaries. You can also use the online tools on OneView to get an idea of how much money you’ll have when you stop working and what you can do to save more.