NEST vs People's Pension

[Irish_Tom]

I enrolled into NEST in February 2014 when I was with my previous employer.

In August 2015 I went self-employed but continued to contribute £100/month by DD.

As of April this year I went back to full-time work. My new employer isn't currently enrolled in any workplace pension scheme but they are doing it in October. As such, I've continued to pay into NEST.

My new employer has opted for The People's Pension and I've been told they won't pay into NEST, so it seems I have a few options:

1. Opt out of TPP and continue paying into NEST myself
2. Transfer my NEST pot into TPP to keep everything in one place
3. Start a new pension with TPP and stop contributing to NEST
4. Start a new pension with TPP and keep paying into NEST.

One is stupid as I won't get employer contributions.

My NEST 'pot' is only worth £7,600 so I don't see three as a sensible choice. I appreciate it should continue to grow before I retire, even without further contributions, but it seems too small to just leave now.

So that really leaves me with two or four. I quite like the idea of spreading the risk a bit and continuing to chuck £100/month into it is no bother, so I'm swaying towards option four. I just wonder whether there's some benefit to option two that I'm not seeing.

Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jokester]

For me, make the maximum contribution to TPP such that your employer makes their maximum contribution, whether you pay into your one or not comes down to if your willing to make additional contributions.

The only negative I see of paying into the 2nd pension is you will want to then do a tax return to get the pension relief so might involve accountancy fees, unless you are comfortable doing it yourself?

 

[Irish_Tom]

Thanks Jokester.

I'm going to have to do tax returns regardless — I've still got a side-gig running so that's not an issue, but a good point.