The Sopra Steria Group Personal Pension ("the GPP") is a valuable staff benefit which is made available to the majority of Sopra Steria employees.
The GPP is essentially a group of personal pension plans, with individual contracts between each member and the pension provider, Scottish Widows.
How does it work?
All contributions that are made to your personal pension are invested, along with contributions from Sopra Steria. There are tax benefits that help to reduce the cost of your personal contributions.
From retirement age (the earliest age is 55 but set to increase to 57) you can access the whole of your fund - either as a lump sum, as a number of payments or alternatively use it to buy a guaranteed income for life.
You can elect where your money is invested from a number of funds that are available, or leave your money in the default fund. You can also switch between funds, should you wish to.
Different funds have different risk profiles. While higher risk funds can potentially provide higher returns over the longer term, these returns can be unpredictable. This means that the value of your personal pension can go up or down.
Deciding which funds to invest in can be a complicated and time-consuming process, and you may wish to seek advice.
Most personal pensions are flexible and portable. If you change jobs, or stop working, you can continue contributing to a scheme. However, Sopra Steria will no longer contribute.
A guide to your pension can be found here and in the Library Section on Orbit.