Smart

You can choose to pay via salary sacrifice and also make a saving on National Insurance.

Smart is an arrangement to contribute to FuturePlanner through salary sacrifice. Smart stands for ‘save money and reduce tax’ and is a method used by many organisations to deliver savings in National Insurance to their employees and the business.

You ‘sacrifice’ part of your pay that is equivalent to your chosen contribution and the Company pays this amount into your Retirement Account on your behalf. As this reduces your pay, your National Insurance contributions are lower.

Your salary, before the Smart deduction, is known as your reference salary. This is used to work out your benefits under FuturePlanner (e.g. the death-in-service lump sum) and by Leonardo for other employment benefits.

The combination of tax relief and paying by Smart means that each £1 you invest in your Retirement Account may cost you as little as 72p in terms of your take-home pay (depending on the overall level of your income). Added to this, you get Leonardo's valuable Match Plus contributions at almost three times your rate. 

While Smart helps many Plan members, there are some for whom it may not save money. Generally, this includes those who:

  • earn less than around £12,000 a year;
  • have already reached State pension age; or
  • are working long-term overseas.

In addition, it’s not possible to pay by Smart if your earnings would become lower than the national living wage. You can find more information on how Smart works here.