I'm not in Pace

When you join Pace DC, you and the Co-op pay contributions into your account. Your contributions are taken out of your Pay each month and you will see these payments appear on your payslip. Your payslip will tell you what contribution rate you are paying if you’re not sure.

You can choose how much you want to pay into Pace DC – the table below shows your options.

You can change your contribution rate whenever you want by filling in the Increase or decrease my contributions form.

*If you join today, your starting contribution will be 3% of Pay and the Co-op will pay 5% of your Pay. You can change to a different contribution level at any time.

You can find out more about your contribution options in the Pace DC pension guide. The guide explains how your pension costs less than you might think, thanks to tax relief and salary sacrifice. You can use the Pace DC pension modeller to see how your take-home pay would change, depending on your contribution choices.

The money that you and the Co-op pay into Pace DC is invested. The aim of investing is to make your account grow.

Your account is invested with Legal & General. They’re one of the UK’s biggest pension and investment companies.

You can read more about how your account can be invested in the Pace DC fund guide. This guide also explains how much it costs to run and invest your account. If you don’t choose where your account is invested it will automatically be invested in the Target: Lump Sum option.

There are three ways in which you can use the money in your account at retirement:

• Cash lump sum
  You can take all of your account as a cash lump sum; 25% will be paid tax-free and the rest will be taxed at your highest rate of income tax.
• Secure income
  You can use your account to buy a regular income, which is called an annuity. If you want to, you can take up to 25% of your account as tax-free cash and use the rest to buy an annuity.
• Flexible income
  You can leave your account invested and take money out, as you need it. This option is sometimes known as ‘drawdown’. The first 25% of your account will be paid tax-free and the rest is taxed as income. This is not currently an option provided directly from Pace DC. If you wish to choose this option, you'll need to transfer your Pace DC account to another pension provider who is able to offer this option.

You can find out more in the Pace DC pension guide.