How can I get my employer to make contributions to my SIPP?

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Shares Magazine

14 May 2026

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Rachel Vahey, AJ Bell Head of Public Policy, says:

Saving for retirement can sometimes seem a daunting task. However, it’s always good to remember that you have got some valuable help from both your employer and from the government.

If you are 22 or older and earn over £10,000, then your employer has to automatically enrol you into a pension scheme. The minimum contribution is 8% of a band of earnings, with at least 3% coming from your employer. When you pay in 4% the government adds in another 1% in respect of tax relief on your pension contributions. That employer contribution can make a massive difference to the size of your final pension pot, especially if your employer offers to pay a higher contribution, which is sometimes dependent on you also increasing your contributions too.

Although automatic enrolment has been a big success in getting more people to save for retirement it’s not without its flaws. One is that your employer controls which pension scheme you use to save for your retirement; usually employees don’t get a choice and instead have to settle for the pension scheme the employer has picked.

Any employee who doesn’t want to save in the employer’s chosen pension scheme should act carefully. There is little point in opting out of that scheme if it means that they miss out on the employer’s pension contribution, which can be very valuable.

Where to start?

Instead, a good starting point is to ask the employer if they are willing to contribute to the employee’s chosen pension scheme instead. Some may choose not to as this means additional administration for them. But if they are, then that may mean the employee has to opt out of the automatic enrolment scheme and instead the employer can pay the contribution into their chosen pension scheme. If the employee opts out of automatic enrolment they will have to be re-enrolled into the main scheme again in three years’ time, when they can opt out again.

The employee may have more control over the employer’s pension choices, if they are a director or if it’s their company. In this case, paying a pension contribution alongside dividends or salary as remuneration, and to extract profits from the company, may make sense to reduce tax liabilities. Employer pension contributions are normally allowable business expenses that reduce Corporation Tax and are not subject to income tax or national insurance contributions.

Onto the logistics. Employer contributions are paid gross – in other words without corporation tax being deducted first. Employers can usually pay into an AJ Bell SIPP through bank transfer or direct debit. They can pay a lump sum or regular contributions.

If your employer wants to pay a lump sum you will need to set up a single payment request. You can do that by adding in your employer’s details. We may need to do some checks on your employer, but if everything is confirmed we will provide you with payment details to give to your employer so they can make the payment.

If your employer wants to set up a regular payment by direct debit, they should complete an employer monthly contribution form and send it back to us.

Tap into our pensions hub

Want to find out more about pensions – our hub has a series of video guides and articles covering topics from how to build a pot in the first place to what happens to your pension when you die and how you can access your pension at retirement.

There are also useful tips on how to avoid fraudsters targeting your retirement savings and how to use AJ Bell’s very own pension finder tool to track down those long-forgotten pots.