Trades Union Congress (TUC) tips
Pensions issues in recruitment and retention
The TUC says that employers do not always do enough to promote quality
pensions schemes as a key part of the employee benefits package. It performed
an analysis of recruitment advertisements in a range of publications that
showed that fewer than one in ten job ads mentioned pensions, even when
the employer clearly did offer a good pension.
The TUC has urged job seekers to ask prospective employers about their
pension arrangements and take them into account when choosing a job.
It has produced a guide for job seekers on what to look for in an occupational pension scheme on workSMART – the TUC’s world of work website.
This is its introductory section, reproduced by kind permission of the TUC.
Asking the hard questions about your pension
A pension is a key part of the pay package offered by an employer, and a good pension can add as much as a quarter to the value of your salary. Particularly if you intend to work for an employer for more than a short time, you should do your research and ask some hard questions about the pension arrangements on offer.
Although there will be complicated differences between pension schemes, employers should be able to provide a straightforward overview of their scheme to job applicants, enough to give the basic answers you need to make a decision.
Too many job seekers, particularly young people, fail to understand how much a good pension scheme contributes to the pay and conditions of a job, and don't understand how to make comparisons between different types of pensions scheme. Unless you have no choice, you should be prepared to say no to an employer who's offering you a poor or non-existent pension. A good pension is much more valuable than gimmicky benefits like duvet days, dress-down Fridays, or discount breakdown insurance.
We've set out the questions that you should ask, together with explanations of what they mean and how to evaluate the answer, so that you look as though you know what you're talking about, and a handy checklist to help you sort the answers you receive.
Obviously, we don't suggest you try asking all these questions in a job interview, but you should be able to get the answers you need with a quick phone call to the personnel department.
You can look at the rest of the TUC’s advice at the workSMART website or download a pdf version from the workSMART website
The pdf version includes a questionnaire that the TUC suggests employees can ask about pensions provision. The TUC suggests that employers may wish to produce recruitment material that uses the TUC questions and provides answers to them.
Other TUC advice for employees on pensions can be found at the workSMART website
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