Proportion of respondents that belong to a pension scheme provided by their employer
They do 95%
They do not 5%
Sample: All respondents (236)
Proportion of respondents that are an active member of a defined benefit (DB) pension scheme
They are not 82%
They are 18%
Sample: All respondents that are a member of a pension scheme provided by their employer (220)
Proportion of respondents that are an active member of a defined contribution (DC) pension scheme
They are 85%
They are not 15%
Sample: All respondents that are a member of a pension scheme provided by their employer (223)
NB: the above three graphs can be used online only if necessary
The type of defined contribution (DC) pension scheme respondents belong to
Group personal pension plan (GPP) 64%
Trust-based money purchase plan 12%
Stakeholder pension 11%
Master trust 6%
Group self-invested personal pension (Sipp) 4%
Hybrid scheme 2%
Do not know 3%
Sample: All respondents that are a member of a DC pension scheme provided by their employer (189)
Respondents’ and their employers’ contribution levels in to their DC pension plan
Employer contribution Personal contribution
Nothing 0 3%
1% 5% 5%
2% 4% 3%
3% 7% 12%
4% 6% 10%
5% 15% 25%
6% 8% 10%
7% 11% 9%
8% 12% 5%
9% 3% 1%
10% 12% 7%
11% 1% 2%
12% 5% 4%
13% 2% 2%
14% 3% 1%
15% or more 6% 2%
Do not know 1% 0
Sample: All respondents that are member of a DC pension scheme provided by their employer (185)
Do respondents pay their contribution into their DC pension via a salary sacrifice arrangement? (NB: This graph can be online only if necessary)
Yes 84%
No 16%
Sample: All respondents that are member of a DC pension scheme provided by their employer (184)
Text to accompany above graphs:
Almost all (95%) HR and benefits professionals belong to a pension scheme provided by their employer.
This is the highest percentage of a sample to do so since we first carried out this survey in 2008, up from 91% in 2014 and 89% in 2008.
Of those that do belong to an employer-provided scheme, 18% are members of a defined benefit (DB) scheme, while 85% belong to a defined contribution (DC) scheme. Just under two-thirds (64%) are members of a group personal pension (GPP) plan, while 12% belong to a trust-based money purchase plan, 11% to a stakeholder scheme, 6% to a master trust, 4% to a group self-invested personal pension (Sipp), and 2% to a hybrid scheme.
As in 2014, the most common contribution level for both respondents who are active members of a DC scheme and their employer is 5% of salary. The survey also found that 16% of respondents pay 10% of salary or more into their pension. More than a quarter (28%) say their employer contributes 10% of salary or more into their DC pension scheme.
Salary sacrifice remains a popular mechanism for making pension contributions, used by 84% of respondents who are active members of a DC pension scheme.
