Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024 section 63

Repayment of contributions on opting out

Section 63 deals with the repayment of a participant's own contributions by the Authority when the participant opts out of the automatic enrolment retirement savings system.

• When a participant opts out, the Authority must repay the participant's own contributions made during the mandatory participation period — the period from their enrolment, re-enrolment, or rate-increase date up to the date they opted out.
• The mandatory participation period varies depending on which opt-out window the participant uses: it may run from the initial enrolment date, a re-enrolment date, or the start of a new contribution rate phase (after years 3, 6, or 9).
• Where a participant opts out after years 3, 6, or 9 (when contribution rates have increased), only the additional amount of contributions is repaid — not the full contributions paid during that period.
• The additional amount is the difference between what the participant actually paid at the higher rate and what they would have paid had the previous lower rate continued to apply.