Smart Pension opt out: do it in your online account within the one-month window and your own contributions are refunded, but your employer's are not.

Smart Pension lets you opt out online, but the month to make the choice can pass quickly. This guide covers the steps, the window, the refund, what happens afterwards and what you give up. If pay is tight and the month is ticking, an FCA-authorised adviser can offer a second view by phone; to request that call, send the form on this page.

How do you opt out of Smart Pension online?

Smart's help centre gives the route through your online account: sign in, select the Stop paying in button, then choose “I still don’t want to pay into this pension”. The next page sets out the consequences. If you still want to go ahead, you tick the boxes confirming that you are the scheme member and understand them, pick a reason from a drop-down list and select the button to stop paying in. A last warning asks you to type “I wish to opt out” before you press the red Opt out button.

Smart then emails your employer, who changes payroll to refund what came out of your pay. One group cannot use this route: Smart’s member guide says anyone who has been contractually enrolled has no opt-out rights, though they can choose to leave the scheme. The Pensions Regulator (TPR) describes contractual enrolment as being put in under a contractual arrangement, for example your contract of employment.

How long is the Smart Pension opt out period?

One month. Smart calls it the opt out window, and its member guide describes it as one calendar month. Under TPR’s guidance to employers, your opt-out period begins on whichever is later: joining Smart as an active member, or being given written enrolment information. From and including that day, you have one month to complete a valid opt-out notice.

So the closing date depends on your own enrolment dates rather than a fixed day each month. Your enrolment letter or email should help, and payroll can confirm the dates.

Smart Pension opt out refund: what comes back, and from whom

Inside the window, you are refunded what was deducted from your pay. Three details matter.

  • The money comes from your employer. Smart says it receives contributions by Direct Debit from your employer and cannot refund you itself.
  • Only your own deductions are repaid. Smart’s member guide says the refund excludes tax relief claimed back from HMRC and your employer’s contribution. TPR adds that any money paid over to the scheme by the employer goes back to the employer.
  • Timing depends on payroll. TPR gives the employer one month from a valid notice, or the next available payroll run if payroll had already closed.

Smart warns that a deduction may still appear on your first payslip afterwards, if your employer received the request after its payroll cut-off date. You should then get all of it back on your next pay date; check with payroll that they have your confirmation.

Leaving after the window: ceasing membership

Once the month has gone, opting out is no longer available, and Smart’s route is to cease membership. The steps are almost identical, ending with you typing “I wish to cease membership”. Your future payments stop, but there is no refund: your contributions and your employer’s stay invested. GOV.UK is more cautious: you may not be able to get payments refunded if you leave later, and they usually stay in your pension until you retire. Invested money can lose value as well as gain it, so you may get back less than was paid in.

Ceasing membership also comes first if you later want to move the pot, as how to transfer out of Smart Pension explains. To pay less for a while instead, see pausing pension contributions. Stopping contributions altogether is not always the only choice. Paying less instead is worth setting beside it, and an FCA-authorised adviser will cover that on a ring-back, free, once your request goes in on this page’s call-back form.

Does Smart Pension put you back in after you opt out?

Probably, in time. According to GOV.UK, your employer must re-enrol you every three years, counted from your first enrolment, or earlier if they choose, and will write to you at the time. Smart’s member guide says you will be told and will get the option to opt out again. TPR says you get a new one-month opt-out period after re-enrolment, as at first enrolment, and your employer can use its existing opt-out and refund processes.

There are exceptions. If you no longer qualify for the scheme, you will not be re-enrolled. If you chose to leave in the 12 months before your re-enrolment date, your employer need not re-enrol you, but may do so anyway. You can also go back in earlier: sign in, select Opt in and confirm, although Smart says your employer may decline if you leave and rejoin repeatedly within twelve months. The wider rules are in the workplace pension rules guide.

What opting out of Smart Pension costs you

The loss is mostly your employer’s money. TPR’s opt-out notice makes you state that you understand you will lose the right to employer contributions and may have a lower income in retirement, and Smart describes the same loss as missing out on free money for your retirement.

In one GOV.UK illustration of a defined contribution scheme, a payday means £40 deducted from you, with £30 from the employer and £10 in relief added: £80 saved. Opting out stops your £40, and the £40 added on top of it stops too. Tax relief is usually added when you pay Income Tax and put money into a workplace pension, and how it arrives depends on your employer: Smart’s member guide describes net pay, relief at source and salary sacrifice arrangements, covered in whether Smart Pension is good and the tax relief guide.

Your pay is no longer reduced by the contribution, though. The case for and against a workplace pension is a separate read; the general rules for any employer’s scheme are in the workplace pension opt out guide, and opting out of NOW: Pensions covers a different provider. Whether the pay you keep beats the employer money you lose is a personal sum. Add your number to the call-back form and have an FCA-authorised adviser work through yours by phone, free.

Smart Pension opt out forms, rejoining and eligibility

Is there a Smart Pension opt out form?

Smart’s help centre sets out the opt out steps online, inside your member account. GOV.UK says your employer must tell you how to opt out.

Can I opt out before my employer enrols me?

No. TPR says you must first have become an active member and been given your enrolment information, and the opt-out period starts after that.

How do I rejoin Smart Pension after opting out?

Sign in to your Smart Pension account, select the Opt in button and confirm. You can ask at any time, though your employer might not accept repeated requests within a twelve-month period.

What if I was not automatically enrolled?

You can still join if you are classed as non-eligible or entitled, but you need to talk to your employer first. Smart notes that an employer does not have to contribute for someone classed as entitled.