No changes to pensions until April 2029
In November 2025 Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the exchequer, announced her 2025 budget. The budget includes a change to the way that some people are taxed when they save money into their workplace pension. But this change is not happening until 2029.
At the moment you can make pension contributions by ‘salary sacrifice’ from your pay. These are known as salary sacrifice employee contributions. If you do this, you do not pay Income Tax or National Insurance on those contributions. From April 2029 this will change for any pension contributions above £2,000. After April 2029 you will need to pay National Insurance on any contributions over £2,000.
We are currently working with Unilever to see what effect this might have on our members. We do not expect this to apply to pension contributions from your Benefits Envelope.
We only expect this change to apply to pension contributions that you make from your pay. This will include:
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Extra voluntary contributions (EVCs) that you make from your pay
- The 5% contribution that you make from your pay if you are building up pension in the DB Career Average Plan
- Any extra life cover that you pay for
We will share more information, including what this means for you, when we have it. But as this change is not happening until April 2029 you do not need to do anything at the moment.