What does automatic enrolment mean for Network Rail people?
Members of the Network Rail section of the RPS or the CARE scheme who remain in their scheme, are not affected by auto-enrolment.
To help people save more for their retirement, the government now requires employers to enrol their workers into a workplace pension scheme if they are not already in one that meets certain minimum requirements.
Auto-enrolment applies to workers who are not already in a Network Rail workplace pension scheme, and who meet the following criteria:
- earn more than £10,000 a year (£768 every 4 weeks)
- are aged 22 or over; and
- are under State Pension age.
If you are a member of the NRDC scheme, auto-enrolment affects you if you are contributing at a level less than the government regulations require. The current minimum contribution is 5% of your Qualifying Earnings (qualifying earnings are your gross earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 for the 2023/2024 tax year; this is different to Pensionable Earnings).
If you are subject to automatic or contractual enrolment you will receive written notification and details of your options.
Since April 2013 new employees are subject to contractual enrolment into NRDC; this achieves auto-enrolment but in a slightly different way. Members can opt-out, but every three years employers have to re-enrol anyone who has chosen not to pay at least the minimum ‘underpin’ contribution.
Network Rail’s next re-enrolment will take place in April 2025. More information on Automatic Re-enrolment 2022 can be found here.
Useful links
Auto-enrolment – Frequently Asked Questions
All you need to know about Auto-enrolment at Network Rail.
Workplace pensions
Find out about workplace pensions and how they work
Money Helper Service
Free and impartial money advice, set up by government.