Glossary
- Active members
- People who are currently contributing to a pension scheme – as opposed to pensioners who are drawing a pension from the scheme or non-pensioners who have stopped making contributions (for example, people who have stopped contributing to an occupational scheme on moving to a new job).
- Annuity
- A guaranteed income given by an insurance company in exchange for the value of your pension pot.
- HR
- Human Resources, abbreviated.
- Inheritance Tax
- A UK tax on inherited money, property and other assets.
- ISA
- Individual Savings Account. ISAs are tax-free accounts for savings and investments.
- Longevity
- Life expectancy (in demography) or just living to an old age.
- Means-tested
- Payments, such as state benefits, which are dependent on the assessment of an applicant’s income or other resources.
- National Insurance Contributions (NICs)
- A form of taxation of incomes payable by those aged up to the state pension age.
- Private sector
- The part of the economy not under state control.
- Public sector
- The part of the economy under state control.
- State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS)
- A supplementary state pension to the ‘old’ basic state pension.
- Workplace pension scheme
- A pension scheme provided by an employer to eligible employees (who are automatically enrolled onto the scheme unless they opt out).