Power up your pension
As a new joiner at Nestlé, you can choose between two defined contribution (DC) pension sections – DC Start and DC Core. As the names suggest, DC Start is a good place to begin but with DC Core your Nestlé pension can become central to your retirement plans. Read on to find out whether it’s time to power up your pension by joining DC Core.
What's defined contribution?
Let’s start here. With a defined contribution (DC) pension, you build up savings in an account with contributions from you and from your employer plus any investment returns. When you retire, you can use the savings in this account in a number of different ways. One way is to turn it into an income for life.
What’s the difference between DC Core and DC Start?
While both sections allow you to save for your retirement, there a few key differences between them.
What can I contribute?
DC Core
You can contribute anything between 5% to 8% and Nestlé will match that by contributing 1.5 times what you do, up to 12%.
If you want to pay in more than 8%, you top up your pension by making additional voluntary contributions (AVCs). Although you don't receive any matching from Nestlé if you make AVCs, you can still make tax and national insurance savings, meaning they’re a tax efficient way to save.
You can join DC Core at any time by filling out a New Member Option Form and returning it to Nestlé Pensions.
DC Start
You can join DC Start as soon as you want. DC Start is also our automatic-enrolment section, so if you don’t join DC Core or DC Start within the first 90 days of your employment with Nestlé, we'll contractually enrol you into DC Start on your 91st day.
In DC Start, your contribution rates are fixed at:
Importantly, you can't increase your contributions in DC Start. To do this, you would have to move to DC Core, which you can do by completing a DC Core Option Form.
As well as building up savings, as soon as you're a member of DC Start, you're also entitled to other benefits that may protect your loved ones. To find out more, see If you die while working.
Working out how much you pay in
To work out how much you and Nestlé contribute into your pension savings account each month, we use something called your ‘pensionable earnings’. This is used to calculate how much you contribute and generally includes your base salary and things such as overtime and shift allowances.