Your benefit choices

Find out how the Unilever Benefits Envelope and your pay can build your pension.

Your benefits

Working for Unilever gives you valuable benefits, such as access to a pension and protection for you and your family while you’re working.

Your total reward package includes a Benefits Envelope on top of your pay. It's worth 25% of your pensionable earnings (your basic pay and, for some people, other allowances). You can use it to save for pension, give yourself extra taxable pay or both.

You can buy other benefits with your pay.

Did you know?

The Benefits Envelope is exclusive to Unilever. By law, companies can pay as little as 3% into pension. At Unilever, your Benefits Envelope is worth 25% of your pensionable earnings on top of your pay. You can use it to save for pension, give yourself extra taxable pay or both.

You should review your options regularly to make sure you'll have enough money to live on when you retire, especially if you are not currently using your Benefits Envelope to save for pension.

You can make changes to some of these benefits whenever you want. But some can only be changed once a year during Annual Renewal.

What changes you can make

Saving into your pension

Below you can read in detail about how you can save from your Benefits Envelope and from your pay.

Benefits Envelope

Save for your pension

You can build up pension in the DB Career Average Plan, save in the DC Investing Plan, or a combination of both.

DB Career Average Plan

This plan gives you:


  • An income for life when you retire
  • An income for your eligible partner and dependants when you die
  • Serious ill-health cover while you’re working
Read more about how DB Career Average Plan pension builds up
Find out when you can take your benefits

DC Investing Plan

This plan gives you a pot of money that’s invested to help it grow over time. When you retire, you use this money to give yourself an income.

If you have any Benefits Envelope left over, you use it to save into the DC Investing Plan.

Or you can stop building up pension in the DB Career Average Plan and start saving into the DC Investing Plan instead.

If you choose to stop, you’ll have one chance to restart building up benefits in the DB Career Average Plan, either at the next Annual Renewal or the one after that. If you stop a second time, you can’t start again.

When you use your Benefits Envelope to save into the DB Career Average Plan or DC Investing Plan, the amount of Income Tax and National Insurance that you pay will not increase.

If you use your Benefits Envelope for extra taxable pay you pay more Income Tax and National Insurance.

Read more about investment options in the DC Investing Plan

Find out how you can use the money in your pot

Extra taxable pay

You can take some or all of your Benefits Envelope as extra taxable pay.

Two of the most common reasons for doing this are if you need more money now to pay bills or if building up pension could take you over your annual allowance.

From your pay

Save more for pension

You can boost your pension by saving some of your pay into the DC Investing Plan. This is called making extra voluntary contributions (EVCs).

You can save:

  • A one-off amount whenever you want
  • A regular amount every month
  • Both

When you make any kind of extra voluntary contributions, you pay less Income Tax on your pay. And, if you choose to save every month for a year, you’ll pay less Income Tax and National Insurance on your pay.

Saving a one-off amount

To save a one-off amount into the DC Investing Plan, download and fill in an extra voluntary contributions form.

You will not pay Income Tax on the one-off amount that you save into the DC Investing Plan.

On the form, tick ‘one-off contribution’ and fill in the amount.

Saving a regular amount

You can commit to saving every month for a year, or keep the flexibility to save less or stop when you want.

Committing to saving

When you commit to saving every month from your pay it costs you less than you think. This is because you’ll save through salary sacrifice. When you do this you’ll pay less Income Tax and National Insurance on your pay.

So if you’re a basic-rate taxpayer in England, every £100 will only cost you £70 from your take-home pay. If you pay tax at the higher or additional rate, your EVCs will cost you less than this.

You can start saving every month or save more whenever you like. Download and fill in an extra voluntary contributions form. On the form, tick ‘fixed term’.

If you want to stop or save less, you have to wait until the next Annual Renewal.

Keeping more flexibility

If you want to be able to vary the amount you save whenever you want, you should not save through salary sacrifice. You’ll pay less Income Tax on your pay, but not less National Insurance.

So if you’re a basic rate taxpayer in England and you save £100 from your pay, it will cost you £80 of your taxable pay. If you pay tax at the higher or additional rate, your EVCs will cost you less than this.

To start saving a regular amount from your pay, stop saving or change the amount you currently pay, download and fill in an extra voluntary contributions form. On the form, tick ‘variable’.

Extra life cover

If you die while you’re working for Unilever, your loved ones will get a cash lump sum. This is usually worth 4 times your annual pensionable earnings on the date of your death.

You can buy extra life cover to increase this amount up to 8 times your pensionable earnings.

Unilever must agree to this and you may have to provide evidence that your health is good.

Tell us who you'd like the money to go to

Extra serious ill-health cover

Serious ill-health pension

The DB Career Average Plan pays you a serious ill-health pension if you’re injured or become so ill that, in Unilever’s opinion:

  • You can no longer do your job or a job that’s similar,
  • Your ability to do paid work is severely impaired, and
  • Your illness is permanent or means that you are permanently incapacitated.

If you are no longer able to work for Unilever, and Unilever agrees that you qualify for this benefit, you’ll get

  • Any pension you’ve built up in the Final Salary Plan, plus
  • The pension you’ve built up in the DB Career Average Plan so far, plus
  • Extra pension for every year between the time you’re forced to stop working and age 65. This pension will be worth £1 for every £80 of your pensionable earnings up to the upper level at the time you retire. It includes part-years, plus
  • Any savings that you’ve built up in your DC Investing Plan pot

The amount may be limited so that your total pensionable service is not more than the maximum service allowed.

Serious ill-health pensions are kept under review. They may be reduced or suspended in certain circumstances, for example if you make a full or partial recovery before you’re 65.

You may have to provide medical evidence or agree to have medical tests to get this benefit.

Voluntary serious ill-health DC top up

You can buy extra cover called ‘voluntary serious ill-health DC top up’ if:

  • Your pensionable earnings are above the upper limit (£52,270 from 1 October 2023)
  • You are an eligible employee under age 65
  • Unilever agrees to this

If you work part time, we use your part-time hours to reduce the upper limit.

You may be asked to provide evidence of good health in order for this benefit to remain in place.

Voluntary serious ill-health DC top up pays a lump sum into the DC Investing Plan for you. You must be paying for this cover when you retire because of serious ill health.

The definition for this benefit is very strict.

As well as meeting the criteria for a serious ill-health pension, your health must mean that you are no longer able to take on any work for any employer before you reach the age of 65. You will need to provide evidence of your health and may need to agree to medical tests to get this benefit.

If you qualify, we’ll pay 25% of your pensionable salary over the upper level into the DC Investing Plan for every year between the time that you are forced to retire until the age of 65.

You can use this money to provide extra income like you would when you retire.

Find out how you can use your DC Investing Plan pot

Use the modeller to explore your options

You can use the Unilever Benefit Choices website throughout the year to help you check your choices and use the modeller.

The modeller gives you an idea of how different choices might affect your Benefits Envelope, take-home pay and pension. To use the modeller you need to sign in through your Unilever account.

Go to Unilever Benefit Choices
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