Reduce Employer NICs: Salary Sacrifice Pensions

Find the Best Workplace Pension

A modern, easy-to-use pension solution for your business and employees. Discover a workplace pension that’s:

  • Easy to set up and manage online in minutes
  • Fully compliant with auto enrolment rules
  • Free for employers – no setup or ongoing fees

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A photo of a man sat at a laptop and excerpts from the Penfold workplace pension platform dashboard

What to Consider When Comparing Workplace Pensions

Service & Support

Is responsive support available by email, chat, or phone to resolve issues quickly? Will you have an Account Manager for personal assistance?

Fees & Charges

Are there hidden fees for employees? What about setup or monthly charges for businesses?

Investment Options & Performance

Does the provider offer funds that align with employees’ values, such as sustainable or Sharia-compliant options? How do these funds perform?

Employee Experience

Is there an app with tools like retirement income forecasts? What’s the provider’s Trustpilot rating? Are there financial well-being resources to help employees understand and grow their savings?

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Default Fund Performance Comparison

Fund performance plays a crucial role in growing your pension value over time. Choosing a provider with strong returns can make a significant difference to your employees’ financial future.

This chart compares the simulated annualised gross and net returns of the Penfold Plan vs. annualised returns of peers’ default funds over 5 years to 31 December 2024, helping you evaluate their performance.

Past performance, actual or simulated, is also not a reliable indicator of future returns. All investments carry risk and your investment value can go up or down. Returns may increase or decrease as a result of currency fluctuations.

A bubble chart comparing gross and net returns for various pension providers. Gross returns (pink circles) and net returns (blue circles) are displayed for each provider. Penfold has the highest returns (8.3% gross, 7.5% net), while Now Pensions has the lowest (4.5% gross, 4.0% net).

Figures for the Penfold Plan are based on a simulation, provided by BlackRock, of how the portfolio might have performed had these building blocks of the plan existed together over the last five years. It’s important to note that it cannot be definitively said exactly how this plan would have performed in the past. Simulations should not be taken as a guarantee of expected past or future performance, but are designed to be illustrative only. A full list of the assumptions made to generate the simulations is should be carefully considered: Penfold Plan assumptions

The figures shown represent a weighted average of performance across 30 age cohorts (ages 36-65) to provide an overall view of member outcomes. Individual returns will vary depending on fund allocation at different points in a member’s investment journey, as well as personal fee structures. For consistency in comparison, returns have been estimated based on a typical pot size of £10,000 and an average salary of £30,000. Actual returns may differ due to factors such as specific employer-negotiated fees, individual pot sizes, and salary levels.

Returns are based on data collected by investment advisors DWA from a variety of sources, including individual providers and data published on Morningstar. Where possible, actual return data has been used; however, some assumptions were made based on underlying fund data due to availability limitations. The impact of charges has been applied on a monthly basis, which may create minor discrepancies with actual experience depending on the charging structure. DWA is happy to review and correct any discrepancies should further evidence be provided.

Business Features Comparison

Enjoy top-rated support, hassle-free payroll compatibility and no fees for businesses with Penfold.

Information updated March 2025
Trusted, high-performing & cost-saving

Why Businesses Choose Us

Trusted By Thousands

With a 5-star Defaqto rating, a 4.6 Trustpilot score, and a top-rated app, Penfold is the pension provider you can rely on.

Exceptional Fund Returns

Our default Standard Lifetime plan, managed by BlackRock, consistently outperforms other auto enrolment providers.

Cut National Insurance

Save your business and employees £1000s in NI through our free salary sacrifice setup – without sacrificing pension contributions.

Trusted by thousands of UK businesses

Everyone needs an auto-enrolment pension scheme, so why not use the best one?

Penfold really stands out with the customer service it offers. They’re so much more flexible and on top of things than any other pension provider I’ve spoken to.

Investment performance is most important, and Penfold’s historical performance is excellent.

Chris Binns

Chartered Financial Planner at MoneyWeb

    A close up photo of a pair of hands holding a phone

    Penfold’s team of dedicated experts are super responsive and will help me with any kind of questions or queries that I might have.

    There’s no longer this restriction where I’m working as a kind of middleman. In fact, people can just go straight to the source and get whatever information they need.

    Penfold was absolutely amazing in terms of the education, the training, and all the administrative backlog that goes on with moving over pension providers. It ran so smoothly.

    Aileen Walsh

    People Operations & Data Lead at Paddle

      Penfold is dramatically better than anything we’ve worked with before and has helped me by removing all of the admin that comes with pensions. ‘Saving time’ is one of the key benefits that encourages me to recommend it to others.

      Penfold’s been a huge success at Cuvva, with 88% of the company logging into the app to view their pensions.

      It’s one of the tools I just could not live without.

      Alex Perkins

      Senior People Operations Partner at Cuvva

        Employee Features Comparison

        Penfold offer an unmatched, full featured saving experience for pension savers.

        Information updated March 2025

        Empowering Employees with Our App

        With an intuitive interface and smart tools, the Penfold app lets employees effortlessly track and manage their pension.

        Get Started with a Better Workplace Pension

        Join thousands of businesses using Penfold’s workplace pension:

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