Do you mind me asking what you do for a living to earn £70k a year? I've done a Masters in a science degree and I'm also 5 years into employment and would love to know how to get there.
I'm not sure asking a random person their specific career is going to be too illuminating, there are multiple careers that can pay over that amount, the vast majority of them don't require an MSc either - though some MSc degree can certainly open the door to some very high paying and/or interesting careers. Applied maths, stats, ml etc.. are pretty versatile in terms of industries where they're useful - from finance to oil exploration to big tech companies to small start-ups etc.. all of which can pay the sort of sum you're querying or indeed much more too.
You can become an accountant or an actuary without a degree too for example - in the latter case they typically hire maths graduates, in the former, they'll take anyone and some of the big firms have been quite open about this - non-grad routes, or disregarding which university you went to etc..
A mate of mine from uni went to do the grad scheme thing at a big 4 firm, I think for him it was just the done thing... go to decent enough uni, get 2:1, join a big firm etc.. he hated it, found it dull. apparently, a whole bunch of them drop out, plenty of people fail the exams or just decide it isn't for them. (conversely, some really keen people who missed out on a place at one of these firms might self-study for relevant exams anyway - like ACCA or actuarial exams etc..)
Salespeople can easily earn that amount (and much more) - I don't just mean the obvious stuff like estate agents and car salesmen (though it's certainly possible there and no degree required) but sales teams in big companies - selling enterprise software for example, that can be a year-long team effort involving say a salesperson + some pre-sales people and sometimes calling in others like product managers - can end up spending tens or even hundreds of thousands just pitching (if you include the flights, hotels, daily cost of people taken away from other projects) and if these are big deals then the comp can be very very good!
Ok on this note, some employers offer something similar to the share purchase thing where you can simply reduce your salary to go into a savings account with the employer.
Money saved this way reduces your taxable income, but not many employers do it and I can't remember what its called.
Yes, sort of. Share options granted as part of your overall comp/income for example could otherwise attract tax and NI when exercised but not if they're granted as part of an HMRC approved scheme.
But basically, one way of implementing a share scheme (which is what you're probably thinking of) does involve a savings account which you save into for a few years and an option to purchase shares at a fixed price at the end of that term, it is quite limited though - there is a max amount you're allowed to save each month (and these contributions you make to the savings are net of tax) however it's the option itself that is a freeby as it doesn't attract any income tax or NI when exercised* (but there is a limit under this sort of scheme to how much of a discount the strike price can be relative to the underlying price at the time) + on top of that any interest gained in the account is yours free of income tax too (which is a bit moot at the moment as interest rates are ridiculously low).
If the price barely moves then you still get to purchase a bunch of shares at whatever discount the strike price as set at at the start, if the price rises then you've got your built-in discount and possibly an even bigger gain from the current price alternatively if the price drops below the discount then just don't exercise the option and take your money out of the savings account instead.
You're still liable for GCT unless you transfer to an ISA or pension.
*that's the way HMRC taxes these things if not included in an approved scheme which IMO is guff, income tax and NI, where it applies, IMO should be applied to the option's premium (or what it would be in theory) when it is granted as that is the value of the thing you "earned" as part of your comp at that point in time... I don't know if it is just accountants/HMRC types just being general biffs when it comes to anything they deem to be too complicated or if it is some worries that some people won't understand being taxed on something that might turn out to be worthless later on.