Financial

The purpose of the Gen group personal pension plan is to provide you and your dependants with some financial security during your employment and in retirement. The benefits provided by the plan are paid in addition to any state benefits you may be entitled to receive.

The plan

The plan consists of a group of individual personal pension plans insured with Aegon. Mercer Limited provide plan administration and consultancy service. The plan is contracted into the State Second Pension (S2P).

You may take your retirement benefits from the plan from age 55 onwards.

Enrolling

You are eligible to join if you are at least age 22 and under State Pension age and you earn more than £10,000 per year.

As a new permanent or fixed-term team member, you will automatically be enrolled in the plan from the first of the month following your date of hire.

After enrolment, you will receive an email from Aegon with next steps, further information on the scheme, and an illustration of the retirement income you might receive under the plan.

Register on the Aegon website to view your account. Click Find my service, and enter the policy number provided in your welcome email from Aegon.

You can opt out of the scheme if you wish, in which case Gen will not make contributions to any other pension arrangement. To opt out, you must raise a ticket with People & Payroll SupportNow at the earliest opportunity from your date of hire.

Contributions

On being automatically enrolled in the plan, your contribution will be set at 4% (matched by Gen at 6%). If you wish to increase your contribution at any time, log in to Workday (or through MyApps), and select the Benefits and Pay section. Clicking the Change Benefits button will begin the process of selecting or changing benefits.

Under the Change Benefits process, you will see an additional benefit listed: Pension – Additional Contribution. Click Enrol for this benefit, and select the additional percentage you wish to contribute (1%, 2%, 3%, etc). The matched Gen contribution is applied automatically. Gen will contribute 1.5 times your contribution of 4%, 5%, or 6%, and these contributions are made on base salary only.

If you wish to contribute more than 6%, enter your preferred additional contribution amount (in addition to the base 4%) under the Pension – Additional Contribution benefit in Workday. Gen contributions are capped at 9%.

Selected changes will be effective the first of the following month.

Review the Workday guide [PDF] and FAQs [PDF] to learn about the benefits portal.

Salary sacrifice

The Gen pension scheme is delivered through salary sacrifice, which is a tax-efficient way for you to maximise your pension contributions while reducing the impact on your take-home pay. Through salary sacrifice, national insurance and income tax savings are leveraged to provide greater savings for your future.

Our partners at Aegon have a useful guide and a comprehensive member toolkit you can use to find out more.

Transferring funds

You can transfer previous pension funds into the Gen plan (or transfer from the Gen plan if you leave Gen); however, there are important factors to consider when transferring funds:

• The amount of any ongoing charges levied by each plan
• Whether the old plan levies a penalty on outgoing funds
• Whether there are differences between the plans that could have financial consequences for you

If you have money in old Gen plans with Aegon (numbers 104730, 112324, 112325, and 112326), you may be able to transfer it to the new plan, number 896. Contact the transfer team at 08456 10 00 10 or 0131-549-5009 or via email.

Please seek independent financial advice before deciding to transfer funds.

Pension holiday

Members of the pension plan can request a pension contribution holiday to suspend contributions for a period of time with the intention of recommencing contributions in the future (usually within 13 months).

To begin or end a pension holiday, raise a ticket with People & Payroll SupportNow.

If you take a pension holiday, Gen’s contributions will cease, unless you are on maternity leave.

If you are on a pension holiday at one of the company’s triennial reenrolment dates (this is a UK government-required reenrolment exercise), we may need to automatically enrol you, and we will contact you in advance to discuss.

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The employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) allows you to set aside between 2% and 10% of your compensation through payroll deductions to purchase Gen stock every six months at a price that is at least 15% below the fair market value.

The discounted price is locked in for a 12-month period. Enrollment periods are held twice a year in February and August.

For eligibility requirements and other plan terms, refer to the Stock Administration page on Gen Central.

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All permanent and fixed-term team members are enrolled in life insurance from your date of hire. This benefit is 100% company paid and is provided by Zurich Life Insurance.

In the event of your death before age 70 whilst employed by Gen, a lump-sum benefit equal to 7 times your base salary would be payable to your beneficiaries.

To update your beneficiaries, log in to Workday (or through MyApps) and select the Benefits and Pay > Benefits section. In this section, you will find Dependents and Beneficiaries as options. If you have added a dependant whom you wish to select as a beneficiary, ensure that under the Dependents section you select Edit for your dependant and select Use as a Beneficary – Yes in the field provided. This will avoid duplications.

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Group income protection through Unum provides you a portion of your income if you are unable to work due to long-term sickness or injury.

Eligibility

All Gen permanent team members between ages 16 and 65 are eligible for this benefit. You are enrolled automatically from your date of hire.

The scheme

You receive 75% of your base salary if you are not able to work due to long-term sickness, disability, or incapacity. Payment is based on your base annual salary, less the state single person’s incapacity benefit.

The benefit will also cover both your pension contributions and Gen’s pension contributions, provided you are a member of the Gen group personal pension plan.

You may become eligible to receive benefits under the group income protection scheme after you have been absent due to illness or injury for a continuous period of 26 weeks. Where appropriate, the process for making a claim will be initiated by HR Services.

Subject to the ongoing acceptance of the claim by the insurer, you will continue to receive benefits under the GIP scheme until age 65 or death.

Your responsibility

You may be required to complete a confidential questionnaire or attend a medical examination. Based on this medical underwriting, the insurer may cap your eligible salary for this benefit, and you will be notified accordingly.

If you receive benefits under the GIP scheme, you will be required to continue to provide the insurer with medical information and comply with any requests to be examined by medical practitioners as determined by the insurer. Failure to provide information or comply with any requests of the insurer may result in the withdrawal of benefits.

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