Personal Accounts: NEST Pensions Home Page

In 2012 the UK Government will introduce a new pension scheme to the UK. Previously known as Personal Accounts, pensions minister Angela Eagle announced the new brand - The National Employment Savings Trust - NEST on 7th January 2010.

The initiative is part of an overall general pensions reform strategy and will create a significant change in the way people save for their pensions and retirement in the UK. For the first time employees and employers will be forced to contribute to a NEST pension (formerly known as a personal account pension) on behalf of the employee, unless they choose to opt out or unless they already contribute to an alternative qualifying workplace pension.

The Government created the scheme to make it easier for mainly low to middle income workers to access an employer sponsored pension scheme or workplace pension.

This site is designed to provide interested parties with an independent source of information on the National Employment Savings Trust - NEST (formerly Personal Accounts) and to help UK employers to plan a strategy to cope with, budget for, comply with, and even benefit from the new nest pensions environment. Employers can use the fast link below to register for our free NEST (formerly personal accounts) strategy pack or read on through the site for more information.

Employers can find out if their existing scheme is compliant, find advice on their obligations once NEST (Personal Accounts) are introduced or read more about what will be expected from them and what can be done in the options for employers section.

For links to the latest developments see our "in the press" section on the right.

Background to Personal Accounts, now known as the National Employers Savings Trust

There’s been no shortage of press coverage concerning pension shortfalls – The Pensions Commission found that between 9.6 and 12 million people were undersaving based on the benchmarks they set out. In order to counteract this, the Government is introducing a national pension savings scheme which was originally known as ‘personal accounts’ but was rebranded NEST in January 2010.

Under the new system, employers will need to enrol all employees automatically into a NEST pension scheme unless they already offer a suitable alternate "qualifying" pension. Importantly employees will be compelled to contribute 4% of band earnings (between around £5000 and £33,000) and employers will have to contribute 3%. A further 1% will be paid in the form of tax relief meaning that a total contribution of 8% of band earnings will need to be paid into a NEST pension scheme or an alternative from 2012.

The scheme has been designed to be introduced in stages with some pilot schemes expected to commence in 2011 and larger employers adopting the scheme from 2012. Employers with less than 50 empolyees will not have to automatically enrol their staff into a scheme until sometime between March 2014 and February 2016. Further exemptions will be extended to new compaies established after October 2012.

Reaction from the insurance industry, finacial establishments and employers has been fierce and vehement. Our press archive section on the right provides links to third party news stories as personal accounts have taken shape since April 2007. Our industry reaction section has articles and opinion from key people in the insurance world.