What’s the best thing about our pension scheme? You benefit from two tax-efficient contributions — both employer and employee contributions — giving you greater savings potential. As a Regal Umbrella worker, you have full control over your contribution levels.

Regal Umbrella partners with Smart Pension to provide our pension service. Our payroll system is fully integrated with Smart Pension, offering outstanding flexibility in how you manage your retirement savings.

Automatic Enrolment

All new Regal Umbrella employees are automatically enrolled into the Smart Pension scheme upon joining us, as required by the Pensions Regulator. Once enrolled, Smart Pension will contact each new employee directly with a welcome email and instructions on how to set up their online pension account.

From your Smart Pension account, you’ll have complete visibility of your pension balance and contributions. You can also choose to opt out of the scheme at any time, should you wish to do so.

Contribution Process

For employees enrolled with Smart Pension, pension contributions are deducted automatically from each payslip. These deductions are reported to Smart Pension weekly, and once a month, Smart Pension collects the total contributions and allocates them into each individual pension account.

Through your Smart Pension online portal, you can monitor all activity and manage how your funds are invested within Smart Pension’s diverse range of portfolio options.

How It Works

Regal Umbrella operates pension contributions based on qualifying earnings.

• For weekly paid employees, qualifying earnings range from £120 to £967 per week.

• For monthly paid employees, the qualifying band is £520 to £4,189 per month.

For example, if you are paid weekly and earn £600, and decide to contribute 3% employer and 5% employee (the default rates), your total contribution will be calculated as:

(£600 – £120) × 8% = £38.40 added to your Smart Pension fund.

Pension Planning Flexibility

Thanks to our seamless integration with Smart Pension, Regal Umbrella offers an exceptionally flexible pension solution for our umbrella workers.

You can:

• Adjust your contribution percentages at any time, up to a maximum of 100%.

• Choose a salary sacrifice arrangement, where all deductions are taken as employer contributions.

• Or opt for a mix of both employer and employee contributions, depending on your preference.

This flexibility ensures your pension works exactly how you want it to — helping you plan confidently for your future.

The Regal Umbrella model, which is still one of the most well-liked payroll choices for independent contractors, is a “employed” solution that provides all the advantages of a conventional employment contract. These consist of general employee rights, possibilities for holiday pay, pension provision, and sick and maternity/paternity pay benefits. The umbrella option is totally compliance and hassle-free, with tax and National Insurance contributions paid at source.

Contractors who are paid and taxed under the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system are entitled to full employment rights, paid time off for holidays and maternity/paternity leave, as well as pension choices. differs slightly from the umbrella model in that contractors may only be thought of as employees for the duration of a particular task or contract.