Another key factor is how your investment funds might perform in the future. Each investment fund has its own investment objective and its own assumed investment growth rate.

If you are near to retirement, you may be invested in one of the following funds and you may see a lower projected value than your current value. This is because our projections assume an inflation rate of 2.5% each year until your selected retirement date and the assumed growth rate of these funds is lower than the assumed rate of inflation:

• Pre-Retirement Fund – the fund aims to provide a balance between growth and capital protection.
• Cash Fund – the fund aims to maintain the value of investments.
• Annuity Fund – the fund aims to protect against the effect of falls in the level of annuity rates.

You can find out more about how inflation can eat away at your retirement income here.

If you would like to see how these funds have grown historically, please click here.

Some major world events can cause market turbulence and as a result may affect the value of your pension savings.

While we understand this turbulence can be worrying, we’ll continue to manage your pension as normal. The People’s Pension structures its investments to manage the risks caused by major events.

We believe the best way to mitigate risk is to invest across the world in a diverse portfolio of assets, and this helps us limit the impact of any single event on our members’ pension savings. As a result, we would hope that only a small proportion of scheme assets would be affected when these events occur. We make sure to review any affected investments.

We’ve made sure to look after our members’ investments through several recent events:

• Rising living costs and inflation
• Ukraine crisis
• Coronavirus pandemic

Pension saving is about the long term

Remember that pension savings are for the long-term and it’s important not to panic about short-term movements up or down.

For younger savers who need investment growth, there’s plenty of time for the markets to right themselves.

And for members in our glidepath who are more likely to be accessing their money in the near future, we take steps to protect their pension savings from unnecessary risks as they get closer to retirement. Please note that a glidepath doesn’t guarantee the value of your pension pot – the value of investments can go down as well as up.

Find out more about investment changes approaching retirement

Planning to access your pension savings soon?

If you’re planning to access your pension savings in the near future, you may wish to take extra care.

Don’t forget, hasty decisions about your pension savings could have a big impact on your future. Because pensions are invested, and can be affected by major changes in the markets – sometimes it might be best to wait before you access your pension savings, especially if you’ve not yet reached your selected retirement age or end of your glidepath. It’s a good idea to focus on your needs in the long term rather than on current events, and to take advice before making decisions.

You can use our retirement planner to work out how much money you may need and could have in retirement. View the retirement planner in your account.

If you’re experiencing financial difficulties, it’s worth exploring any other savings you might have before taking your pension savings and looking at what other sources of support are in place. More information can be found on the MoneyHelper website. MoneyHelper also has a debt advice locator tool to help you find out where you can go to get free debt advice. You can also find out more on our webpage about paying into your pension when times are tough.

Choosing what to do with your pension savings is an important decision, so you may want to seek advice or guidance before you decide.

Pension Wise is a service that can help, so visit their website for more information. We recommend that you get guidance from Pension Wise about your options.

You may also wish to speak to an authorised financial adviser before you choose what to do. If you don’t have a financial adviser, you can find one in your area by visiting the Unbiased website. A financial adviser may charge for any help or advice they give.

Find out more about your guidance and advice options.

Short-term fluctuations in your savings, caused by events like the coronavirus outbreak, can look worrying, but it’s important to look at the bigger picture.

MoneyHelper has a handy website to help you manage your money through uncertain times.

Pension saving is about the long term

For younger savers who need investment growth, there’s plenty of time for the markets to right themselves when events like the coronavirus occur.

And for members in our glidepath who are more likely to be accessing their money in the near future, we take steps to protect their pension savings from unnecessary risks as they get closer to retirement. Please note that a glidepath doesn’t guarantee the value of your pension pot – the value of investments can go down as well as up.

Find out more about investment changes approaching retirement

What happened to my pension while I was furloughed?

You and your employer should’ve continued contributions to your pension while you were furloughed, based on the amount you were being paid. Remember that if you were on furlough and your employer wasn’t topping up your salary, the total amount you earn would’ve been lower. This meant your pension contributions would have been lower too.

The government started to contribute less towards your pay from July 2021 if your employer signed up to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). Your employer was expected to make up the rest of your furlough pay to a minimum of 80% of your normal wage.

The CJRS scheme ended on 30 September 2021.

Find out more about the phased approach the government took to end the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) on gov.uk

What contributions did employers need to pay?

• Employers should’ve continued contributions at the regular agreed rate.
• If your employer uses qualifying earnings to work out pension contributions, and your earnings fell below £520 per month, contributions may not have been due.
• If your employer is using salary sacrifice, the rules were a bit different as contributions should’ve continued at the rate agreed with your employer. Check with your payroll department how it worked for you.

Employee contributions couldn’t be claimed back from the government under the CJRS. You should’ve continued to pay as per the legal minimums, or whatever was set out in your contract.

Read more about what to do if you want to reduce your contributions.

What happens to my pension if my employer went out of business because of coronavirus?

Your pension is your money, invested in your name. If your employer goes out of business, at any time, you’ll no longer receive contributions from them going forward but your pension pot is held separately and won’t be available to your employer’s creditors.

If your employer did go out of business and pension contributions were/are outstanding, this can impact your ability to claim a small pot lump sum until those contributions have been paid. An Insolvency Practitioner will be responsible for gathering all the information on pension payments that your employer should’ve made before the insolvency date. This process can take a considerable time to complete.

If I was made redundant, do I have to pay pension contributions based on my redundancy pay?

The tax-free redundancy payment (up to £30,000), ie the lump sum you get for being made redundant, isn’t counted as pensionable earnings and therefore isn’t subject to pension deductions. What you receive in your final period of employment which is your normal taxable pay is subject to the same auto-enrolment deductions.

In February 2024, we changed the way we select equities (shares in companies) in several of our investment funds. We moved £15bn of our members’ savings into climate-aware investment strategies. This move will gradually reduce the carbon emissions intensity (how much carbon dioxide is produced per million pounds invested) of these investments to align them with the pathway proposed by climate scientists to keep global warming below 1.5°C (compared to pre-industrial levels).

This is included within the following investment options:

• Pre-Retirement Fund
• Global Investments (up to 100% shares) Fund
• Global Investments (up to 85% shares) Fund
• Global Investments (up to 60% shares) Fund

For more information, please see our Responsible Investment webpage, which has links to our Responsible Investment Policy, Climate Change Policy, and our annual climate change reporting –Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TFCD) Report.

What about the ethical fund?

Our Ethical Fund has taken the additional step of removing companies that have revenue linked to fossil fuels, in addition to exclusions in place for companies that gain a significant portion of their revenue from several other business activities that are linked to social or environmental harm.

For more information, please see Our Ethical Fund in focus webpage.

Find out more about our investment funds

The yearly statement is a snapshot of:

• what you’ve paid into your pot last year.
• the total value of your pension pot and
• an estimate of what you might get at retirement.

It doesn’t take into account any contributions you’ve since paid in, or any change in the unit prices since the date of your statement. To see your current pot value, log into your account. Please note values aren’t guaranteed and can go down as well as up.

How the annual charge is calculated

Members pay an annual charge which is usually deducted in October, if you have investments with us on 1 April of that year. We’ll only apply an annual charge if we calculate that you’ll have a pot size of £100 or more after the charge is taken.

If a member has a flexi-access drawdown account in addition to their pension pot, the annual charge will only be taken once from their main pension pot – it won’t be deducted from their flexi-access drawdown account. If a member only has savings in their flexi-access drawdown account, no annual charge will be deducted.

To find out exactly how much you’re charged, please log into your account and go to ‘Manage my pension’, followed by ‘Charges’.

How your management charge is calculated

The calculation for your management charge is:

• the value of your pension pot
• multiplied by our management charge of 0.5%
• then divided by the (number of days in the year).

(0.5/365)=0.00137%

Each day our fund managers take 0.00137% of the value of assets as a charge. This is accounted for when calculating the daily unit price

How the rebate on your management charge is calculated

You’ll also typically receive a rebate on your management charge once you have over a certain amount in your pot.

The rebate is calculated at the end of each rebate period. It’s automatically added back into your pot each month and rewards you for saving. This helps your pension pot to grow.

Read more about our annual management charge.

To find out exactly how much you’re charged, please log into your account and go to ‘Manage my pension’, followed by ‘Charges’.

If you pay £100 into The People’s Pension and the current unit price is £5 per unit –

£100 ÷ £5 = so you’ll buy 20 units.

When you come to claim your fund and the new unit price is £7 per unit when you claim –

20 units X £7 = so you’ll receive £140.

• B&CE Global Investments (up to 60% shares) Fund
• B&CE Global Investments (up to 85% shares) Fund
• B&CE Global Investments (up to 100% shares) Fund
• B&CE Annuity Fund
• B&CE Pre-Retirement Fund
• B&CE Cash Fund
• B&CE Ethical Fund
• B&CE Shariah Fund*

* If you choose to invest in the Shariah Fund you must invest 100% of your funds in the Shariah Fund (you can’t split this investment).

Find out more about our investment funds