Home > Defined Contribution > Your Pension Savings > Changing your contributions

Changing your contributions

To change, or make one-off contributions, you can find instructions under ‘Managing your contributions’ on One Place..

You can get a better idea of how much you will be paying into your pension pot in terms of real money, by taking a look at L&G’s salary sacrifice calculator.

Can I opt out and not pay contributions?

You can opt out at any time, but you might want to take some financial advice before you do. The Partnership legally must check whether you’re eligible again every three years and if you are, it will put you back into the Scheme and tell you it’s done so.

If you’d like to opt out of paying contributions, you’ll need to update Workday. One Place tells you how to do this on the ‘Opting out of pensions or Smart contributions’ page.

Go to One Place

A little can become a lot

What is a Defined Contribution (DC) Pension?

Understanding your pension savings and knowing how your pot is invested can be tricky.

Put simply, the more you pay in, and the longer it stays invested, the more chance your pension pot has to grow – so you could have more when the time comes to take it.

Keep on growing

The contributions you pay in each month buy units in investment funds, which grow over time in line with investment performance. It’s normal for the value of your units to go down sometimes too. The aim is that over time your units have longer to grow.

The Trustee regularly reviews the investment options to check they’re performing in the way they’re expected to. You may sometimes see changes to the options that are available.

You can check the information on the ‘You & your investments’ page for more details, including why it’s important to check your Target Retirement Age and review where your pension pot is invested.

You May Be Interested In

Meet your two new Trustees

Your two newest Partnership Elected Trustee Directors officially joined the Board in April 2026.

They are Matt Clifton, the Partnership’s Chief of Staff, and Roberta Brittle, Retail Optimisation Lead.

They were elected by the Partnership Council earlier this year following our hunt to find two Partners, or retired Partners, with calm judgement, clear vision and the curiosity to ask the right questions.

Matt joined the Partnership as part of the Waitrose Post-Graduate Branch Training Scheme more than 20 years ago, has mainly worked in Central Retail in both John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners, and has also worked in Customer Experience and Omnichannel roles.

Roberta’s been a Partner for 19 years and is a qualified CIMA accountant, with experience developing long-term plans.

Here, we asked them for a bit more information in their own words:

Matt:

“I wanted to be a Trustee to try to give something back, contributing on behalf of past, present and future Partners, while continuing to enhance my personal development and knowledge. Through helping maximise the long-term financial wellbeing of the Scheme, I’m really looking forward to ensuring it can deliver for all members and can support life after work.

“At the Partnership, I’ve been in my current role for two years, working alongside the Chairman and Executive team, supporting them with current operational activity. Before I started here, I was an officer in the British Army for 10 years, and served on multiple operational tours in main battle tanks.

“Outside of work, my wife Grace will tell you I spend far too much time cycling, as I love to keep fit. I grow fruit and veg on my allotment and absolutely adore cooking for Grace and our two teenage daughters.”

Roberta:

“I’m looking forward to helping to shape the pension strategy and making it the best it can be for both present and future Scheme members. This will partly be by looking at value for money and helping to ensure it’s running as effectively and transparently as possible.

“I enjoy working with diverse teams, being collaborative and driving decision-making processes so this is also going to be a valuable experience to be involved in something for our Partners and former Partners beyond my usual day-to-day work.

“Beyond the Partnership, I’ve been the Chair of an Academy Trust for the last seven years which has given me a real-world understanding of rules, standards, and good governance practices that pension trustees are also expected to follow. It’s also given me experience of making fair, honest decisions based only on what is best for others.”

Listening to you

Earlier this year, we held focus groups with current Partners to ask them how they feel about their pensions, what they’d like to know more about from the Scheme, and which communications stand out.

The sessions were incredibly insightful, and the Trustee is very grateful to everyone who expressed an interest in joining and those who took part.

Participants told us that a central hub like our new website would be helpful so they have one central place to find information about their Partnership pension. We also heard that more information about ‘what happens if’ scenarios would help to make things easy when people need to navigate life events. You can now find a list of these under FAQs/Life Events.

Hearing from you, our members, about what’s important is what drives us. We’ll be in touch in the future to ask for your feedback to help us shape future communications. Look out for it – we’d love to hear from you!

Listening to you

The sessions were incredibly insightful, and the Trustee is very grateful to everyone who expressed an interest in joining and those who took part.

We’re not sleeping on it

Climate change can affect the Scheme, presenting both risks and opportunities for investment in companies or assets that could benefit from environmental initiatives.

We follow the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and produce a yearly report on how we identify, assess and manage climate-related risks and opportunities.

Our latest report includes more information on our net zero target, and the work to be completed to better define what this means.

Click here for a copy of the 2025 TCFD Report

Nuts about saving for retirement

Saving for retirement is something you do bit by bit, over time. Put simply, the longer you pay contributions and the longer they have to grow the more you could have when the time comes to retire.

It’s always a good idea to check in and look at how much you are paying and how much the Partnership is paying too.

Do you know that the Partnership will match your contribution by up to 8%. So, you could benefit from a contribution to your pension pot of up to 16%.

When you join the Partnership, you’re automatically enrolled in the DC Section, you pay 4% and the Partnership pays 4% too.

But you can get even more by increasing your contribution and you’ll get more from the Partnership too!

And once you’ve been at the Partnership for four years, the company will put in an extra 4% each month. So, you could get a contribution of up to 20%!

You can check how much you’re paying into your pension pot on your monthly payslip.

If you would like to know your contribution rate, this can be found on Workday, and instructions on how to change your contributions can be found under ‘Managing your Contributions’ on OnePlace.

Taking care of your loved ones

It’s important to make sure your loved ones are taken care of if anything happens to you. The Trustee is responsible for deciding who your death benefits are paid to if you die before you have taken your pension pot from the Scheme.

That’s why it’s important that you let us know who you’d like to receive your pension pot.

To do this, you need to nominate your beneficiaries through your online XPS portal ‘MyPension.’

You can choose to leave your pension pot to more than one person, and it’s completely up to you on how you’d like to split it when you complete the form.

If you need any help completing the form, please contact XPS.

It’s vital that you keep this information up to date as and when life changes, so that the Trustee can consider your wishes.

Are you a member of both DC and DB sections of the Scheme?

If you are a member of both the DC and DB section of the Scheme, XPS are the administrators of your pension. You will need to update your beneficiaries by logging into XPS’s online portal, MyPension. Please note you will not be able to update your beneficiaries on L&G Manage your Account.

Taking care of your loved ones

That’s why it’s important that you let us know who you’d like to receive your pension pot.

To do this, you need to nominate your beneficiaries through your online L&G portal ‘Manage Your Account (MYA).’ Once you’ve logged in, click on ‘Manage my pension’ and then ‘Nominate Beneficiaries.’

You can choose to leave your pension pot to more than one person, and it’s completely up to you on how you’d like to split it when you complete the form.

If you need any help completing the form, please contact Legal & General.

It’s vital that you keep this information up to date as and when life changes, so that the Trustee can consider your wishes.

Are you a member of both DC and DB sections of the Scheme?

Finding lost pensions

Do you know where all of your pension pots are?

When the time comes for you to start taking your pension, you’ll want to make sure you know where and how to access your pension pots. You might have pension pots built up from employment other than the John Lewis Partnership.

If you think you’ve lost track of a pension, you can use the government’s pension tracing service.

Visit the pension tracing service

Protect your pension pot from scammers

Did you know that in the last year…

Around 7.3 million UK adults were targeted by pension scammers.
It’s estimated that 2.5 million people were victims of pension scams.

Make sure you don’t get tricked by a scammer

Back away from high pressure sales tactics – this is likely to be a scam
Be wary of anyone offering time-limited offers, promises of high returns or early access to your money before age 55.
Don’t discuss your personal details with anyone cold calling you. Cold calling is illegal.
Always check that anyone you are getting advice from is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Remember, if it feels too good to be true it probably is.

Read more about pension scams, what you can do, and links that might be helpful.

If you’re worried you might have been part of a scam you can call and speak to L&G and you can report it to Action Fraud, either online or you can call them on 0300 123 2040.

Go to: Action Fraud

Changing your contributions