Your pension details

Read more about the different plans below.

Not sure what plan you fall into?

We’ve created a diagram that might help:

Final Salary Plan

The Final Salary Plan closed to new members on 1 January 2008 and to everyone on 30 June 2012.

If you were building up pension in the Final Salary Plan when it closed in 2008, you were given a one-off chance to switch to the DB Career Average Plan.

From 1 July 2012 members of the Final Salary Plan started building up pension in the DB Career Average Plan.

The Final Salary Plan gives you a predictable, secure income for life when you retire and protects you if you become too ill to work.

It also gives your eligible partner and dependants an income when you die.

Most members could build up pension in the Final Salary Plan for up to 40 years.

Income from the Final Salary Plan is based on:

How long you built up benefits in the Final Salary Plan
Your pensionable earnings while you were working
How early you retire (before the age of 65)
Any service credits that you were given or bought

When you retire, your pensions from the Final Salary Plan and the DB Career Average Plan are added together. This income will increase every year.

How your pension built up

For every year that you were a member of the Final Salary Plan you built up £1 of pension for every £60 of your final pensionable earnings.

We reduce your Final Salary Plan pension based on any salary that you didn’t pay National Insurance contributions on (known as the Lower Earnings Limit). Your Final Salary Plan pension is reduced by £1 for every £80 of salary under the Lower Earnings Limit for every year that you were a member.

If you work part time, or have worked part time in the past, we work out your total pension based on what your pensionable earnings would have been if you worked full time. Then we reduce your Final Salary Plan pension based on how many hours you worked.

Pension increases

Your Final Salary Plan pension increases every year to help it keep up with the rising cost of living (inflation). How much it increases by depends on whether you:

Are still building up DB Career Average Plan pension
Have stopped building up DB Career Average Plan pension
Have already retired

While you are still building up DB Career Average Plan pension

If you’ve built up pension in the DB Career Average Plan continuously since June 2012, your Final Salary Plan pension is based on the lower of:

Your current pensionable earnings
Your pensionable earnings on 30 June 2012 increased by 3% every July since then

If you have not been a member of the DB Career Average Plan continuously since June 2012, your Final Salary Plan pension is based on the lower of:

Your final pensionable earnings at the date you stopped building up DB Career Average Plan pension and
Your pensionable earnings on 30 June 2012, increased by 3% every July until you stopped building up DB Career Average Plan

When you stop building up DB Career Average Plan pension, or when you turn 65 if that's sooner, we do one final check to see if your pension should be increased again. To do this we check your DB Career Average Plan pension against your Final Salary Plan pension on 30 June 2012.

If you’ve stopped building up DB Career Average Plan pension

Your Final Salary Plan pension is based on pensionable earnings on the date you stopped building up DB Career Average Plan pension.

If you stop building up DB Career Average Plan pension, your Final Salary Plan pension stops being linked to your salary.

It then increases in line with inflation as measured by the Retail Price Index (RPI) up to a cap (limit) of 5% every year. We check these increases against the current statutory requirements to see if your pension should be increased further.

When you retire

Your Final Salary Plan pension increases every year on 1 April. Increases follow inflation as measured by the Retail Price Index (RPI), up to a cap (limit).

Pension you built up:

Before 1 January 2008 is capped at 5%
From 1 January 2008 to 30 June 2012 on the 7% contribution rate is capped at 3%
From 1 January 2008 to 30 June 2012 on the 8.5% contribution rate is capped at 5%

You may also have made extra voluntary contributions into the DC Investing Plan while building up Final Salary Plan pension. You may also have made additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) with Zurich, Standard Life, Prudential or Utmost. When you retire you can use these to provide a pension from the Unilever Fund, a pension from an insurance company or a cash sum. We’ll tell you about these in your retirement pack.

When you retire you can use these to provide a pension from the Unilever Fund, a pension from an insurance company or a cash sum. We’ll tell you these in your retirement pack.

Find out more about your options when you retire.

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DB Career Average Plan

The DB Career Average Plan closed to new members on 30 September 2021.

The DB Career Average Plan gives you a predictable, secure income for life when you retire and protects you if you become too ill to work.

It also gives any eligible partner or eligible dependants an income when you die.

Most members can build up pension in the DB Career Average Plan for up to 40 years. Any pension you built up in the Final Salary Plan counts towards this. When you’ve built up 40 years of pension, you can choose to continue to build up an extra 5 years.

Income from the DB Career Average Plan is based on:

How long you’ve been building up DB Career Average Plan pension
When you built up DB Career Average Plan pension
Your pensionable earnings (your basic pay and, for some people, other allowances)
How early you retire (before age 65)
How your DB Career Average Plan pension is revalued (increases every year) to help keep up with the rising cost of living (inflation)

How your pension builds up

The DB Career Average Plan built up differently:

Between 1 January 2008 and 30 September 2021
After 1 October 2021

Between 1 January 2008 and 30 September 2021

For every year that you were a member of the DB Career Average Plan between 1 January 2008 and 30 September 2021 you built up £1 of pension for every £60 of your pensionable earnings. Only pensionable earnings between a lower and an upper level counted towards the pension you built up.

After 1 October 2021

Every year that you’re a member, you build up £1 of pension for every £80 of your pensionable earnings.

Only your pensionable earnings up to an upper level count towards your DB Career Average Plan pension. This upper level goes up every year in line with inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). From 1 October 2023, the upper level is £52,270 for full-time employees.

If you work part time we work out your part-time equivalent based on how many hours you work and how many hours a full time employee works. Then we adjust your upper level in line with this.

If you earned over the upper level, Unilever may have also saved into the DC Investing Plan for you.

When you retire, any pensions you might have from the Final Salary Plan and the DB Career Average Plan are added together. This income will increase every year.

What you pay

To build up pension in the DB Career Average Plan you make a contribution from your pay.

Your contribution will be 5% of your pensionable earnings (your basic pay and, for some people, other allowances).

Some years you may pay more than this.

If the cost of DB (after you’ve paid your 5% contribution) is bigger than your Benefits Envelope, you pay an extra contribution from your pay. This varies from year to year. We tell you about this during Annual Renewal. Read more about how the cost of DB is taken from your Benefits Envelope on unileverbenefitchoices.com.

What Unilever pays

Unilever pays whatever is needed in addition to your contributions to make sure the Fund has enough money to pay members' benefits now and in the future. The Trustees regularly check if the Fund has enough money and Unilever may change what it is paying following each check.

In years where you do not use all of your Benefits Envelope to save for pension in the DB Career Average Plan, you can use the rest of your Benefits Envelope to save for pension in the DC Investing Plan.

You can instead choose to stop building up pension in the DB Career Average Plan and save for pension in the DC Investing Plan.

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

Pension increases

How your DB Career Average Plan pension increases while you’re still building it up

Your DB Career Average Plan pension increases in a different way to any Final Salary Plan pension you have. Every year the value of the DB Career Average Plan pension that you’ve built up is revalued to help it keep up with the rising cost of living (inflation).

It works like this:

Year 1: You build up pension in the DB Career Average Plan.

Year 2: You build up another year of pension in the DB Career Average Plan. At the end of year 2, the pension you built up in year 1 is increased and then this is added to the pension you built up in year 2.

Any DB Career Average Plan pension you built up:

Before 30 September 2021 increases every year in line with the Retail Price Index and is capped at 5%
After 1 October 2021 increases in line with the Consumer Price Index and is capped at 5%

If you stop building up DB Career Average Plan pension before you retire

Any DB Career Average Plan pension you built up between 1 January 2008 and 30 June 2012 increases in the same way as it did when you were still building up pension. If you stopped building up DB Career Average Plan pension after 30 June 2012 we then check these increases against certain minimum requirements and will increase your pension if it is below this level.

Any DB Career Average Plan pension you built up between 1 July 2012 and 30 September 2021 increases in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) and the increase is capped at 2.5% a year.

Any DB Career Average Plan pension you built up after 30 September 2021 increases in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the increase is capped at 2.5% a year.

If you are made redundant, you move to another employer due to an outsourcing or the part of the company you worked for is sold or stops being part of the Unilever group

The DB Career Average Plan pension you have built up will be increased in the same way as it did when you were still building up pension.

This is Unilever’s current approach and may change in the future.

Find out more about how your pension increases before retirement.

When you retire

Your pension increases every year on 1 April. Increases follow inflation up to a cap (limit).

Pension you built up from 1 January 2008 to 1 July 2012 follows inflation as measured by the Retail Price Index (RPI) and is capped at 2.5%.

Pension you built up :

From 1 July 2012 on the 5% member contribution rate is capped at 3%
From 1 July 2012 on the higher member contribution is capped at 5%

Pension you built up from 1 October 2021 is linked to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), up to a cap (limit) of 3%

View your retirement options

What happens when you stop building up pension in the DB Career Average Plan

You can stop building up benefits in the DB Career Average Plan at any time.

Get advice before you opt out

You might not be able to re-join the DB Career Average Plan and might lose other important benefits if you have any Final Salary Pension.

DC Investing Plan

You may have savings in the DC Investing Plan if you were a member of the DB Career Average Plan between 1 January 2008 and 30 September 2021 and you earned over the upper level. Or if you made extra voluntary contributions (EVCs) to the DC Investing Plan.

You can use your Benefits Envelope to save into the DC Investing Plan. Or you can make extra voluntary contributions (EVCs) from your pay.

The DC Investing Plan gives you a pot of money that’s invested to help it grow over time. When you retire, you can use this money to give yourself an income. Or, if you’ve built up pension in the DB Career Average Plan, you can use it to provide some, or all of your tax-free cash.

How your pot builds up

The amount of money you build up depends on:

How much you save from your Benefits Envelope and from your pay
How your investments perform
How long your money is invested for

Because your money's invested, the value of your pension pot can go up or down from day to day, depending on how your investments are doing. This is normal. The aim is that by the time you come to use your money, the value of your pot will be bigger than if you hadn't invested it.

You can choose how to invest your money, or you can choose an automatic switching strategy known as the ‘default’. If you don’t make an investment decision your pot will be invested in the default. This option moves your money into lower risk investments when you get closer to retirement. The Trustees and their investment advisers believe that this option works best for most members.

Your investment choices View your retirement options

What you and Unilever pay

You can save into the DC Investing Plan from your Benefits Envelope. So Unilever pays these contributions.

How much you can save into the DC Investing Plan depends on if you are using your Benefits Envelope to build up pension in the DB Career Average Plan, or not.

If you are not building up pension in the DB Career Average Plan

The smallest amount you can save into the DC Investing Plan is 11% of your pensionable earnings (your basic pay and, for some people, other allowances).

The most you can save is 25% of your pensionable earnings. If you want to save more, you can make extra voluntary contributions from your pay.

If you do not use all of your Benefits Envelope to save into the DC Investing Plan you’ll get what’s left over as extra taxable pay.

If you are building up pension in the DB Career Average Plan

Some years you may have some Benefits Envelope left over. In these years you can use the rest of your Benefits Envelope to save for pension in the DC Investing Plan. When you do this it must be at least £20 a month (£240 a year).

If you do not use all of your Benefits Envelope to build up pension in the DB Career Average Plan and to save for pension in the DC Investing Plan you’ll get what’s left over as extra taxable pay.

What happens if you stop saving into the DC Investing Plan

Find out more about Stopping saving in the Fund

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The aim of this website is to outline the benefits available from the Fund. It does not go into as much detail as the legal document governing the Unilever UK Pension Fund – its 'trust deed and rules'. If there are any differences between the trust deed and rules from time to time in force and this website, the trust deed and rules will apply. Some members’ benefits and options may be subject to certain special arrangements, which are not described on this website. Please check with the Unilever Pensions Team if any special arrangements apply to you.

Unilever UK Pension Fund Trustees Limited is the Trustee of the Fund. Throughout this website, ‘Trustees’ means the Directors of Unilever UK Pension Fund Trustees Limited.

This website does not give any rights to particular levels of contributions or benefits. Unilever reserves the right to end your employer’s participation in any section of the Fund and, with the Trustees’ agreement, to make changes to the Fund.

Anything in this site about legal or tax issues is based on the Trustees’ understanding of these issues at the current date and is a high-level guide only. Legal and tax issues may change from time to time. The Trustees cannot give tax advice in relation to the application of tax rules or legislation and it is each member’s responsibility to take advice on their own tax position.