FAQs

You can find the answers to some common questions about DC Choice and retirement saving in general. If your question isn’t answered here, please get in touch.

About DC Choice Accordion Arrow

How does DC Choice work?
While you’re a member, you build up a pot of money in your account during your employment, made up of contributions from you and from Mitchells & Butlers. These contributions are invested with the aim of increasing your retirement savings over time.

Who should I contact if I’ve got a question about DC Choice?
Email or call the Plan administrator, Legal & General.

Who runs DC Choice?
DC Choice is a section within the Mitchells & Butlers Pension Plan. DC Choice has a board of trustees whose role is to act in your best interests. They appoint specialists to manage the Plan on a day-to-day basis and deal with members’ enquiries.

How do I know how much money is in my personal account?
You can view your personal account at any time through 4me (if you’re still a Mitchells & Butlers employee) or Manage Your Account.

Can I opt out of DC Choice?
You can opt out of DC Choice, but you’ll be missing out on the Company’s contributions and the valuable benefits for your retirement. Before you opt out, you should think very carefully about the valuable benefits you are giving up. To opt out, please email faye.burrows@mbplc.com to request an opt-out form

How can I make a complaint?
If you’ve got a complaint, please get in touch with the Plan administrator, Legal & General, first. If your issue can’t be resolved informally, there’s a formal procedure to resolve complaints, called the Internal Disputes Resolution Procedure.

Contributions Accordion Arrow

How much does it cost?
The minimum contribution is 4% of your Pensionable pay. This is your basic four-weekly pay before tax.

What happens to my contributions?
The money paid in by you and by Mitchells & Butlers is added to your personal account, which is administered by Legal & General and invested.

What is salary sacrifice?
It’s a way of paying your pension contribution which saves you money by reducing how much National Insurance you pay.

Do I have to pay contributions using salary sacrifice?
You can’t use Salary Sacrifice if it would result in your salary being reduced to below the National Minimum Wage (or National Living Wage if you’re over 25). It’s also not possible to sacrifice statutory pay, for example on maternity, paternity, adoption or sick leave.

What is the Annual Allowance?
The Government places a limit on the tax-free amount of money that can be saved into a pension each year. In 2023/24, this was increased from £40,000 to £60,000 per tax year. You can save more than this into your pension in a year, if you wish, but any contributions above this amount would not receive tax relief.

Your Annual Allowance may be reduced if you earn more than £260,000 a year. It would also be reduced if you have flexibly accessed any other pension arrangements.

What is the Lifetime Allowance?
This is a limit placed by the Government on the total value of tax-efficient retirement savings you can build up over the course of your working life from ALL sources, including DC Choice (but excluding the State pension). If you exceeded the Lifetime Allowance, you had to pay a Lifetime Allowance charge on the excess.

With effect from 6 April 2023, the Government abolished the Lifetime Allowance charge and announced its intention to remove the Lifetime Allowance from legislation from 6 April 2024. The Plan administrator may still need to provide you with information about the Lifetime Allowance until 6 April 2024.

Can I change my contribution rate?
Yes, you can change your contribution rate at any time through 4me.

Investments Accordion Arrow

How are my contributions invested?
The contributions from you and from Mitchells & Butlers are invested either in one of the lifestyle investment programmes or in your self-select funds. The value of your personal account can therefore go down or up at any point in time, depending on the performance of the financial markets.

What are my investment choices?
You can use one of the automatic lifestyle programmes or the self-select fund range. If you don’t make a decision, your money is invested in the default lifestyle investment option.

What is lifestyling?
Lifestyling is an investment approach that uses an automatic process of switching your pension account from higher-risk funds into lower-risk funds gradually as you progress towards your target retirement age.

Can I use a lifestyle programme option as well as a self-select fund?
No, you can’t invest in both at the same time. If you choose lifestyle, 100% of your personal account must be invested in this way.

Can I change my investment choices?
Yes, you can make changes to the way your pension account is invested at any time. Log into 4me (if you still work for the Company) or Manage Your Account (if you’ve left).

What’s my target retirement age?
This is the age at which you plan to take your benefits in DC Choice. It can be any age after 55. Please note the Government plans to raise this to age 57 in 2028.

Where can I get investment advice?
There’s more information about the types of investment you can choose in the DC Choice investment guide. Neither Mitchells & Butlers nor Legal & General can give you advice.

MoneyHelper has an online retirement directory where you can search for an adviser.

Isn’t investment risky?
Investment involves taking risk in the expectation that this will be rewarded over the long-term period that applies to a pension. You can take different levels of risk (using the different self-select funds) and using a low-risk fund would make it less likely that your personal account would go down in value. However, it also reduces the chances of investment markets helping your personal account to grow and it’s important to remember the impact inflation can have on the real long-term value of your savings. Like all investments, your personal account can go down in value as well as up.

What impact will charges have on my personal account?
The companies that administer and invest your DC Choice pension take a fee for their services direct from your account. We have to show the impact of these costs and charges on members’ accounts in a document called the Chair’s DC Statement.