You join Nest through an employer that uses it, automatically if you are 22 to State Pension age and earn £10,000+, or yourself if self-employed.
Nest is a workplace pension, so who can join depends on how you work, how old you are and what you earn. An FCA-authorised adviser can compare Nest with pots you already hold. The form on this page takes only a few contact details, and the call-back costs nothing. Pension values can fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than you put in.
How do you join a Nest pension?
Nest says: "Nest is a workplace pension, not a private one – so you can’t join directly yourself, unless you’re self-employed or a single person director with no employees." That leaves three usual routes:
- Auto-enrolment. Your employer picks Nest and enrols you. Most members join this way.
- Opting in. If your employer has not enrolled you, you may still have the right to ask to join.
- Self-employment. You open an account yourself, with no employer involved.
Nest also lists a fourth, narrower route: joining after being awarded a share of a Nest pot in a divorce settlement (see pensions on divorce). Unsure whether your employer uses Nest? Ask them who runs your workplace pension.
What age can you join Nest, and what do you need to earn?
Nest’s own table lets workers aged 16 to 75 ask to join, whatever they earn, but automatic enrolment applies only from 22 to State Pension age and only at £10,000 a year or more. Its figures, read on 26 October 2026, are:
| Annual earnings | Age 16 to 22 | Age 22 to State Pension age | State Pension age to 75 |
|---|---|---|---|
| £10,000 or more | Can ask to join; employer contributes | Automatically enrolled; employer contributes | Can ask to join; employer contributes |
| £6,240 to £10,000 | Can ask to join; employer contributes | Can ask to join; employer contributes | Can ask to join; employer contributes |
| £6,240 or less | Can ask to join; no employer contribution | Can ask to join; no employer contribution | Can ask to join; no employer contribution |
The bands overlap at 22 as Nest prints them. The Pensions Regulator’s guide for business advisers labels the same columns 16 to 21, 22 to State Pension age, and State Pension age to 74, so at 22 you sit in the middle column. Nest adds that these earnings figures are reviewed every year by the government. The age bands are covered in workplace pensions for under-22s and auto-enrolment after State Pension age; the general rules sit in who has to be enrolled.
Being auto-enrolled into Nest by your employer
GOV.UK sets four tests for the employer’s duty. You must count as a "worker", be 22 or over but below State Pension age, be paid £10,000 a year or more, and usually work in the UK. If all four apply, the employer must enrol you and pay in. The employer has to write to you with the date you were added, who runs the scheme, what each side pays, how tax relief applies and how to leave.
The start can be put back by up to 3 months, and the employer must let you join in the meantime if you ask. Nest’s example of the minimum, 8% in total, has the employer paying 3%, you 4% and tax relief 1%; minimum workplace pension contributions explains the sums.
You can leave, but only briefly. Nest says opting out is possible within the first month after enrolment, and then what you paid in comes back. The government asks employers to re-enrol eligible workers every 3 years, so you may be enrolled again if you are still eligible. If your contract itself puts you in the scheme (contractual enrolment) you cannot opt out, though you can stop paying in. The steps are in opting out of a workplace pension.
Opting in to Nest if you are not auto-enrolled
Opting in suits workers an employer has not enrolled, perhaps because of age or pay. GOV.UK says you can usually join anyway, and "Your employer cannot refuse." In Nest’s table, the employer pays in only if you earn above £6,240 a year. Nest also keeps a separate welcome guide for members who asked their employer to enrol them and have no option to opt out, so check which guide matches how you joined.
There is a limit. Nest says that if you opted out or stopped contributing in the past 12 months, your employer does not have to take you back. On a low income, joining Nest trades pay now for a pot later. Your benefits and savings matter here, so the form on this page is worth a look: an FCA-authorised adviser rings you, with no fee, to go through them.
Joining Nest when you are self-employed
Nest says you can usually save with it if you are self-employed or the sole director of a company that employs nobody else, ordinarily work in the UK, and are at least 16 and under 75. You answer a few eligibility questions online and open the account yourself. Payments and tax relief are covered in Nest for the self-employed; auto-enrolment and the self-employed explains what happens to a workplace pension if you leave employment.
What you need to set up your Nest online account
Nest’s account set-up has three steps: personal details, which need your National Insurance number; contact details, where you verify an email address and a phone number; and login details, a username and password. Employer-enrolled members may also use their Nest ID, which starts with MEM and is in the welcome letter. If the letter has not come, choose "I don’t know my Nest ID" when you set up your account.
Already had a Nest pot through another job or self-employment? When you are enrolled Nest looks for a definite match and, if there is one, you save into the same pot under the same Nest ID; if it is unsure, you get a new Nest ID and can contact Nest. Bringing pots together is covered in transferring a pension into Nest.
Smaller points about joining Nest
Does Nest stop taking members at a certain age?
Nest’s table runs to age 75 for asking to join, and its self-employed route is for people under 75. To check when you reach State Pension age, see the UK State Pension.
Can I join Nest on a zero hours contract?
GOV.UK’s automatic enrolment checks are whether you count as a "worker", your age, your earnings and whether you usually work in the UK. If your hours and pay change week to week, an adviser can explain free how those checks fit you once you send the form here. Zero hours, agency and part-time workers has more.
Can I pick Nest myself when my employer has chosen another provider?
Not as an employee. Nest says you can save with it if your employer chooses Nest or you are self-employed, so ask your employer which scheme it uses.
Will a new employer start a second Nest pot for me?
Not necessarily. Nest looks for a definite match with an earlier pot when you are enrolled, and uses the same pot and Nest ID when it finds one.
Do Nest members pay different charges?
Nest says: "We have the same low charges for all members." The two charges are set out in Nest pension charges, and is Nest a good pension weighs them up. Nest is not a SIPP (what a SIPP is).