How to Opt Out of a Workplace Pension and When You Can Opt Back In (2026/27)

This guide is general information, not advice.

This guide is for employees who have been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension and want out, whether that means leaving now, stopping payments later, or finding a halfway house. It covers the procedure and the timing, because the timing decides whether you get your money back.

At the end you will know who to contact, what the one-month window means, what happens to money already paid in, when your employer puts you back in, and what opting out costs you in employer money and tax relief. For how auto-enrolment and the contribution rates work in general, see the auto-enrolment explainer.

Before you start

• Your enrolment letter. GOV.UK says your employer must write to you when you’ve been enrolled, giving the date you were added, the scheme and who runs it, how much you and they will pay, how to leave, and how tax relief applies (joining a workplace pension). The date on it starts your window.
• Your pension provider’s name and contact details. They are in the letter. The opt-out goes through them.
• Your National Insurance number or date of birth. The Pensions Regulator lists one or the other among the details a valid opt-out notice must hold, along with your full name, a signature (or an online confirmation that you sent it yourself) and the date (TPR guidance no. 7).
• Your latest payslip. Check how much has been taken so far.

Step-by-step

1. Check you have a right to opt out. The right belongs to workers who were automatically enrolled or who opted in. TPR says someone enrolled under their contract of employment (contractual enrolment), or an entitled worker who asked to join, has no opt-out right and leaves under the scheme’s own rules instead (TPR guidance no. 7). If you were not automatically enrolled, GOV.UK says check with your employer.

2. Get the opt-out notice from your pension provider. GOV.UK: “You can opt out by contacting your pension provider. Your employer must tell you how to do this.” (leaving a workplace pension). TPR explains why: in most cases you can only get an opt-out notice from the scheme, not the employer, so the decision is yours and not made under pressure. The exception is a trust-based scheme whose administration has been handed to the employer.

3. Complete it inside the opt-out period. You have one calendar month. For an occupational scheme it starts from the later of the date you became an active member and the date you received the written enrolment information. For a personal pension scheme it starts from the later of the date you got the terms and conditions and the date you got the enrolment information (TPR). You cannot opt out before you have been enrolled.

4. Give the completed notice to your employer. TPR says the employer must check the notice is valid, stop deducting contributions, tell the scheme, and refund you. If the notice is invalid, the employer must tell you why, and TPR says the one-month period is then extended to six weeks.

5. Missed the month? Stop contributing under the scheme rules. After the opt-out period you can still leave, but GOV.UK says you may not get your payments back; “they’ll usually stay in your pension until you retire”. TPR says an automatically enrolled member who leaves a personal pension, or a money-purchase-only occupational scheme they joined on or after 1 October 2015, can leave the money invested or transfer it. Ask your provider which applies to you.

6. Consider reducing instead. GOV.UK says you may be able to cut your contribution for a short time, and to check with both your employer and your provider whether you can and for how long. TPR notes that if you go below the statutory minimum the scheme is no longer qualifying for you, and your employer will re-enrol you at the next re-enrolment date.

Deadlines and what happens next

• Refund. TPR says the employer must refund what was deducted, less any tax due, within one month of receiving a valid opt-out notice. If payroll had already closed, it must be by the end of the second pay reference period after the notice, which in practice means the next available payroll. You are treated as if you had never been a member that time round.
• Re-enrolment. GOV.UK says your employer will re-enrol you automatically, either every 3 years from the date you first enrolled or sooner, and will write to you when they do. They do not have to re-enrol you if you no longer qualify, or if you left the scheme in the 12 months before your re-enrolment date (leaving a workplace pension). Each re-enrolment gives you a new one-month opt-out period.
• Opting back in. You can opt back in at any time by writing to your employer. GOV.UK says the employer does not have to accept you back if you’ve opted in and then opted out in the past 12 months. TPR adds that they can still choose to (TPR guidance no. 6).
• New job. The statutory wording on the opt-out notice says a new employer will normally enrol you straight away, and an opt-out covers only the employer named on it (TPR).

Common mistakes

• Asking HR for the form. It normally comes from the provider. An employer handing you an opt-out form can, TPR says, in some cases breach the inducement rules.
• Letting the month run out. After the opt-out period there is usually no refund; the money stays invested.
• Assuming it is permanent. You will be put back in at re-enrolment if you still qualify, and you have to opt out again.
• Opting out under pressure. GOV.UK says your employer cannot encourage or force you to opt out, and the notice itself says you can tell The Pensions Regulator if that happens.
• Forgetting the tax on the refund. TPR says the refund is paid less any tax due.

Worked example

Figures from GOV.UK’s contributions page: in most auto-enrolment schemes contributions are worked out on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year, and the legal minimums are 3% from the employer and 5% from you, 8% in total. Your own scheme may use a different earnings basis or pay more.

Take a salary of £30,000 in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, paid monthly, in a scheme using those minimums:

	Per year	Per month
Qualifying earnings (£30,000 − £6,240)	£23,760	£1,980
Your 5% contribution (gross)	£1,188.00	£99.00
Of which tax relief at 20%	£237.60	£19.80
Your cost after tax relief	£950.40	£79.20
Employer’s 3%	£712.80	£59.40
Total going into the pension	£1,900.80	£158.40

This matches GOV.UK’s own illustration, where you put in £40, your employer £30 and tax relief £10: 8% in total. Under relief at source the provider adds the 20% to your 4% net payment; under net pay you get the same relief by paying less tax.

If you opt out, your take-home pay rises by about £950.40 a year. What you give up is the £1,900.80 a year that would have gone into your pension, including £950.40 you did not pay yourself (the employer’s £712.80 plus £237.60 tax relief). Salary sacrifice schemes work differently, and National Insurance comes into it — see the auto-enrolment explainer and run your own figures in the pension contribution calculator.

Related reading

• Pension auto-enrolment explained
• How to check pension tax relief is being paid
• Pension contribution calculator