Ultimately this is your decision and you should think carefully whether paying into the Plan is right for you.

However, by paying into the Plan, you benefit from your employer also paying in and you’ll receive tax relief on your pension contributions, up to certain limits.

You may also pay into a pension plan you hold outside of the UK at the same time you pay into the Heinz UK Pension Plan, you don’t have to choose between paying into one or the other.

Neither the Trustee, the sponsoring employer or the Plan’s advisers can provide you with any financial advice. We recommend seeking independent financial advice before making any decisions.

You may, if you wish, look to transfer a pension you have outside of the UK into the Plan, should the schemes’ rules allow and the Trustee of both schemes agree to it.

However, you will need to consider issues like any tax charges that may be payable, how long you intend to stay in the UK and the value of your pension in your home country.

We recommend seeking independent financial advice before making any decisions.

You have a number of options available to you:

1. You can leave your pension where it is. You will become what’s known as a deferred member of the Plan and your funds will continue to be invested. You will no longer be able to pay into the Plan and your employer won’t pay in either. You will be able to change your investments and you may leave your money in the Plan until you decide to transfer it out or retire.
2. You may transfer your pension in the Plan to an arrangement outside of the UK as long as the pension plan is known to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS). If not, it may be an unauthorised payment and then you may be charged high rates of tax. You will also need to check if an overseas transfer charge needs to be paid when pension savings, which have received UK tax relief, are transferred. If you’ve already left and wish to investigate a transfer you can contact us but we recommend seeking independent financial advice before making a decision.

Contributions – You’ll be treated as a UK resident for tax purposes and as such you will normally receive tax relief on contributions you pay into a UK based pension, within the limits detailed below. You will pay Income Tax on your pension income once you start receiving it.  

Annual Allowance – This is the amount you and your employer are permitted to pay into a UK pension plan in any tax year without incurring a tax charge.

You can find out more here.

Lifetime Allowance – This is the value of all your UK based pension arrangements at the date you retire. If the value is greater than the allowance limit you may have to pay an additional tax charge.

You can find out more here.

If you choose to, you can leave your pension invested until you decide to retire. In the UK the earliest that you can retire is age 55.

You may need to think about the impact of any exchange rate changes on the money you receive from the Plan and you will also pay Income Tax on the pension you receive into your UK bank account from the provider.

You can find out more about retirement options available here.

You should look out for the warning signs of pension scams, where scammers try to persuade pension savers to transfer their entire pension savings, or to release funds from it, by making attractive-sounding promises they have no intention of keeping.

You can find a copy of The Pensions Regulator’s leaflet, ‘Don’t let a scammer enjoy your retirement’, along with other information on the warning signs to look out for, on The Pensions Regulator’s website at www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/pension-scams

If you receive unwanted contact about your pension, you can report it to the Information Commissioner’s Office. You should take as much detail as you can about the person contacting you. You can report them online (www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint) or by calling 0303 123 1113.