Manage my pension

Once you’ve registered, you’ll be able to:

• find out how much your pension is worth and, when you’re ready, complete all the forms online to put your pension into payment
• get a guaranteed value for transferring your pension; again, this process can be started online for most members
• update your personal details
• view or update your nominations; this lets the Trustee know your wishes in relation to the payment of any benefits from the Scheme on your death
• view your monthly pension payslips and annual P60s (if you’re already receiving a pension from the Scheme). 

Registering for My Pension

You need login details from WTW to be able to register for My Pension. WTW sent out updated login details in 2023 to anyone who wasn’t already registered, including a username and, separately, a temporary password. If you have lost your login details, please contact WTW.

Security is our priority

All the data we show on My Pension, and that you send to us when you’re using it, is kept securely on our administration system. We will only ever contact you with relevant information about the Scheme, and we will only share data with third parties where necessary or reasonable to do so for the purposes of administering the Scheme.

Once you’ve registered for My Pension, you can change your communication preferences to tell us, for example, that you want to get Scheme updates by post.

The Scheme provides security not just for you, but also your family or financial dependants in the event of your death. 

What’s paid to your beneficiaries will depend on the Scheme Rules in force on the date you stopped earning benefits, but they would normally include:

• a pension for your spouse, civil partner or dependant
• children’s allowances (if you die in retirement). 

If you die within the first five years of retirement, a cash lump sum equal to the unpaid balance of those five years’ pension payments is also payable.

If no pensions are paid, a refund of contributions may be made.

Update your nominations

The Trustee decides who gets the benefits on the death of a member. They must act in line with the Scheme Rules, but they will take your wishes into account.

It’s a good idea to review your nomination every so often and whenever your circumstances change, such as if you get married or divorced, enter or leave a civil partnership or have a child.

Log in to My Pension to view or update your nominations. 

Report the death of a member

If you need to let us know that a member has died, please contact WTW, the Scheme administrator, as soon as possible.

You will be asked to provide a copy of the death certificate for the member’s record.

WTW will normally respond within five working days of you contacting them. However, it will take longer to let you know if any further benefits are payable, and the team may ask you for additional information before they can put a spouse’s pension into payment.

Sometimes, if WTW isn’t told about the death of a pensioner before the payroll is run for the following month, there can be an overpayment of pension which goes to the member’s account. If this happens, WTW will try to recall the pension back from the member’s bank account, but if they can’t do this then they’ll write to the spouse/representative of the estate to ask for the money back. If an overpayment is made, please return the payment as soon as you are able to. We know that the death of a family member is a difficult time and appreciate your understanding.

For many people, their pension can be one of their biggest financial assets – so in the event of a divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership, your Sainsbury’s pension will normally form part of the financial settlement.

There are a number of ways this can happen:

• Pension sharing order: part of your pension is given to your ex-spouse or civil partner, so you get a smaller pension.
• Offsetting: the cash value of your pension is offset against other financial assets, like the marital home, so none of your pension is provided to your ex-spouse.
• Earmarking: if you’re not taking your pension yet, a portion of it can be earmarked to go to your ex-spouse or civil partner when you start to receive a pension. 

You can get the information you need for a divorce online through My Pension. You will need to find out the cash value of your pension, which is called a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value, or CETV. It’s free to run a CETV quote through My Pension. If you don’t have access to the internet, you can ask WTW for a guaranteed CETV which may need to be worked out by the Scheme actuary. You can have one free CETV a year. If you need another within a 12-month period in relation to a divorce, there will be a charge payable, usually £250 plus VAT. 

There will also be some administration costs associated with sharing a pension, payable when the divorce is finalised, and WTW will send you details of these charges.

Log in to My Pension to see the cash value of your pension.