SMART Pensions is designed to increase the take home pay of BT people by reducing National Insurance Contributions without affecting pension benefits from the BTRSS.
SMART Pensions involves the restructuring in the way you make pension payments. You exchange a percentage of your salary for pension payments which BT will then make on your behalf into the BTRSS.
Payments through SMART Pensions will permanently alter the Terms & Conditions in your contract of employment and will reduce your gross salary (but will not affect non-pension benefits with BT, such as bonus, overtime, holiday and pay reviews). It may affect other statutory/state benefits, transactions and borrowing levels that are based on salary.
If you are currently participating in SMART Pensions, your decision to participate will be carried over to the BTRSS. If only part of your contributions is covered by SMART Pensions and you would like to change this to all of your contributions, you will need to complete the application form which can be obtained from Information about SMART Pensions.
You can find general examples below on how SMART Pensions works or please see the BT Retirement Saving Scheme guide. Alternatively, for further information and to see how SMART Pensions may affect you, please see the Information about SMART Pensions guide.
If you are still unsure on how SMART Pensions will affect you, we recommend you seek financial advice. There may be a cost associated with this and you should note that neither BT nor Standard Life will be able to provide any advice to you. If you do not have your own financial adviser, you can find one in your area by visiting unbiased.co.uk
Tax and legislation are likely to change. Tax relief may alter and its value depends on your financial circumstances. The information given is based on Standard Life’s understanding of current law and HM Revenue & Customs practice.
