If you pay in, William Hill pays in too

As a William Hill employee, when you pay into the Plan, we pay in too.

Once you’re enrolled, every payday you’ll see that 4% of your pay is automatically put into the Plan, helping you to save for the future. But it doesn’t stop there. It's not only your contributions going into the pot; every time you contribute, we will contribute 4% too, adding more money towards your life after work.

So, if you do decide to opt out, you’ll be missing out on extra money from us too.

There’s no time like the present

Getting to grips with your long-term savings sooner rather than later, can really have a big impact on your financial future and the William Hill Employee Pension Plan can help you to do that. Starting now means you have:

• More time to build up money. The sooner you start to save, the more contributions you can pay in before you retire, and the more money we’ll pay in too.
• More tax relief from the government. On top of our additional payments, every time you pay into your pension, the government will pay in a percentage of tax relief, adding even more money into your pot. So, the sooner you start saving into your pension, the more tax relief you will receive.
• More time for your money to grow. This is the big one - the money you pay into the Plan doesn’t just sit in an account, it is invested, meaning it has a chance to grow over time. If you pay in £100 per year for ten years, and each year your account grows by 1% because of investment returns, then you’ll save over £1100. But if you do the same for 20 years, you end up with £2475 – more than twice as much.

It’s your money – you can decide how to spend it

Accessing your money for retirement doesn’t have to be the same for everyone. You can receive it as a regular steady income or take it all as one cash lump sum. There is more freedom in receiving your pension than you might think, you can receive it as:

• Guaranteed retirement income (annuity). This gives you regular guaranteed income when you come to retire. You can buy an annuity with all of your pension pot, or take 25% tax-free and use the rest for an annuity. This would then pay a regular income either for life, or for an agreed number of years.
• A lump sum. Take your whole pension in one go. The first 25% will be tax-free, and the rest will be taxed as earnings. (Be aware this might leave you with a large tax bill.)
• Flexible retirement income (pension drawdown). Pension drawdown can give you more control and flexibility over how and when you receive your pension savings. You can take up to 25% of your pension pot as a tax-free lump sum, leaving the rest to be invested and gain more investment growth. You can then decide whether you want a regular income from this or you could take amounts as and when you want them.
• A number of lump sums. You can leave your money in your pension pot when you come to retire and take lump sums from it as and when you need it, until your money runs out or you choose to get it another way.

Please note, the William Hill Pension Scheme is currently unable to provide either drawdown or multiple lump sum access to your benefits. In order to utilise these options, you would need to move your benefits to an alternative provider when you are ready to retire.

Looking after your finances

If you would like to find out more about pensions and retirement, including auto-enrolment, you can visit the MoneyHelper website, an independent organisation set up by the government and funded by the financial services industry: www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement

They offer a free service to help everyone manage their money better, offering the support you need for a range of financial problems.