We are getting to know our pension, are you?

Station Taxis staff explain why everyone should get to know their pension!

Anthony Mills General Manager Station Taxis (Sunderland) Ltd explains why everyone should get to know your pension.

Anthony Mills

Station Taxis can trace its history back to 1901, the days of the horse drawn cab. Today we are proud to still be part of the everyday lives of the people of Sunderland, helping them to make over 1 million journeys a year. The company was incorporated in 1985, the same year I started a preserved final salary pension with my first employer, which subsequently stopped when I left that employer 8 years later. I joined Station Taxis in 2004 and was automatically enrolled onto the company pension scheme in 2015. I am looking forward to having that extra bit of money for my retirement to top up my State Pension and help me keep on doing the things I love, as well as maybe fund some new interests for all that spare time I hope to have. Your Pension seems so far off when you first start working, but that’s the best time to start the saving habit and will help you gain the most through compound interest. I wish I’d continued saving when my final salary pension stopped but any savings at any age can make a difference.

I’m very pleased that my management team are also saving with a workplace pension, as I know it’s helping them to have a better future too, with the added financial security everyone needs for later life.

The earlier you start saving, the more you get later; my Accounts Officer Alex Neale, 26, from Sunderland runs our finances. Alex agrees: “Even though retirement seems a long way off for me, I think it is very important to start planning ahead and think about my future. Rather than having to find out more about it myself and take steps to join, I found the automatic enrolment process is very easy as I didn’t have to do anything. I think this is great because I probably would have forgotten to sort it out without being auto-enrolled. Now I feel at ease knowing that when I pay in, my employer pays in too and so we’re both contributing towards my future.”

Alex Neale

It’s never too late to start saving either; my Data Installation Technician, Paul Matthews, 49 from West Boldon, keeps our fleet computers and IT running. He is keen to build his pension savings: “After not having pension schemes with previous employers, it was great to start saving by being automatically enrolled with my new employer Station Taxis. As I am getting closer to retirement age, I have decided to contribute more into my pension so I can have a better standard of living later on in life.”

No matter how near, or far away you are from retirement, your pension is important; get to know yours! www.workplacepensions.gov.uk/employee