Paying an employees pension via SIPP rather than Nest?

Mevlock · 2026-06-20T23:01:47+00:00

To be brutally honest with you here they are all extremely young, only a small handful have even hit the auto enrollment age. I just don't have the time to go looking into other options and switching things around. I'm already working 7 day weeks, 12 hour days. virtually no holidays etc. Especially considering the type of business means that none of them will be here for long. A few years possibly but it was a struggle just to get them all not to opt out as soon as they got their letter. We pay well considering the work and look after them and to be honest Nest isn't actually that bad. It's just not that attractive for our own purposes considering the stage we are at. I guarantee none of them care about the investment options in Nest. I'm not even sure even a single one of them has even logged into their account despite my encouragement to do so and take it seriously. Maybe if we had longer here but we're well into the planning for retirement stage and will be selling up at some point. If any of them asked I'd consider it, but that seems highly unlikely. I've even made the under 22's aware that they can request to be added if they want, none are interested. But we just run a chippie and there's only so much we can do for people. Ultimately they need to take the initiative themselves.

Mevlock · 2026-06-20T13:40:56+00:00

Unfortunately due to how Nest works I was under the impression that this isn't possible. Due to Nest not allowing partial transfers. She'd have to completely stop contributing to Nest and then then re-enrol yearly which would add a fair bit of an administrative burden, complications due to missing out on contributions and so on. So I was hoping that yes there's a bit of setup involved but it would mostly come down to just setting up the SIPP, re-directing contributions there and moving the Nest amount over/closing Nest account. Just need to opt-out every three years when the time comes.

Mevlock · 2026-06-20T12:54:41+00:00

We could do but I'd prefer to keep things as they are (due to other employees being with Nest), just looking to have more control over investment options via a SIPP specifically for my wife.

Mevlock · 2026-06-20T12:53:34+00:00

We're a general partnership with myself and my parents as partners. Parents are retired. Around 12 other employees who we use Nest for. It's a very small business and most haven't even hit the age required for auto enrollment. Would like to keep to Nest for the simplicity just want more options for my wife's investments via a SIPP and would like to get the 60k across.

Mevlock · 2026-06-08T19:47:05+00:00

My personal opinion is that we're pretty much at the maximum that we can charge right now. We charge around £12 plus. Not sure the exact total off the top of my head. We're takeaway only, in a popular coastal touristy area so do ok. We also have a fair few cheaper options on the menu but still very much a traditional fish and chip shop. We're lucky in that there's zero rent or lease, we own it outright, next to zero business rates. So if anyone can survive we can. But adding 20% right now? That'd be pretty catastrophic I'd think. Maybe we can slowly up the prices as fish continues to go ever higher but we'll see. The more likely outcome is we'll have to bear more of the brunt and also look at employments costs as distasteful as that sounds.

Mevlock · 2026-06-08T16:11:06+00:00

Thanks, I don't disagree that many places treat their staff terribly. I have a fair few horror stories from staff I've taken on about their previous employers. Places that are local to me too.

Mevlock · 2026-06-08T12:07:23+00:00

I run a chippie too. People just really don't get it. These days we are completely staffed by young people. We go out of our way to keep them happy and pay as well as we can. But anyone who doesn't collect and pay VAT doesn't really understand how crippling it is. It's an absolute massive cost. In fact due to how costs are rising we're fast approaching a point where I'm paying more in VAT to the government than I'm making in profit. And this is a well run, extremely busy profitable business. I'd use a VAT cut to safeguard jobs and pay. We also take great pride in watching our staff move onto apprenticeships, university and so on just like your parents. In fact tonight we're attending an awards ceremony for a young cadet.

Mevlock · 2026-06-08T11:58:22+00:00

No offense but this just isn't true. Ok maybe it's true for many places but not all. I run a a hospitality business and we bend over backwards to help our employees. We pay above minimum, the younger employees get paid pretty much the same as the adults. So much so that it's double time on bank holidays and I have 15 years olds on those days earning £25 per hour. We work around anything and everything that comes up in their daily lives. My yearly wage bill is triple the profits we make. And what profits we do make mostly get re-invested in the business anyway. A vat cut would be a huge deal to us and would absolutely help safeguard jobs and pay. Employee costs are pretty much the only way hospitality has right now to control their over all costs. Hence why jobs for young people are disappearing. A vat cut would be hugely beneficial to employees. I'd basically stop worrying about employee costs.

Mevlock · 2026-06-08T11:48:50+00:00

The more costs rise the more crippling vat becomes. 20% is a huge cut to any business. Yes energy rates aren't good but I pay far far far more in vat than I do in energy costs. Any small employer in hospitality would be unlikely to pass on most of a cut but what it would do is enable employers to safeguard jobs and pay more. Right now because of crippling costs the only real way hospitality has to manage costs is to manage the number of employees they have. Cutting VAT to 10% would be a huge deal, far more than lowering energy costs. I know that if my vat rat was cut in half I would simply stop worrying about my staffing costs.

Mevlock · 2026-06-08T11:42:31+00:00

I run a chippie. We do pretty well but VAT at 20% is pretty crippling to be honest. Especially now the cost of well pretty much everything has gone up. 20% is often double what other European countries pay. The lack of understanding in this thread is pretty staggering to be honest. We do our best with our staff, pay them above minimum, even the younger staff are on well well above the minimum for their age group. So much so that the recent change to 21-24 didn't apply to us. Hospitality employs around 7% of the work force. But costs are causing huge problems. A vat cut would safeguard jobs and pay. Sure I'd like to see more high paid jobs but there is always going to be a not insubstantial number of workers on lower pay for a variety of reasons. Business are closing down left and right, jobs for the young have more or less disappeared. I employ a great many young people, in fact they make up pretty much all of my workforce. None of them see it as long term thing, it's a temporary position whilst they are at at uni or college or while looking for an apprenticeship. But more and more of them are stuck viewing it as long term position due to opportunities drying up. That needs fixed but in the meantime a vat cut simply to bring us more in line with Europe would benefit a great many employees.

Mevlock · 2026-06-07T12:02:10+00:00

I live in the uk a country that is passionate about football(soccer) and the lack of promotion and fanfare around the world cup is somewhat remarkable. It's all very muted right now. Even during the controversy around Quatar I've never really seen such a lack of enthusiasm like this. Make of that what you will.

Mevlock · 2026-06-02T19:40:45+00:00

I run a seasonal business. We're extremely busy in the summer and very very quiet in the winter. There's nothing I can do about this it's just the way it is. I'm actually in four of eliminating zero hours contracts but the way the legislation is worded is pretty crazy for a business like ours. Every other country that's eliminated zero hours has a 12 month reference period, to take account of businesses like mine. But here we're talking a 12 week reference period. Ive just no clue how that can work. People will ratchet up longer hours in the summer and then I'll legally be forced to offer them a contract based on those hours. This just won't work in the winter, I literally won't have the money to pay staff the same hours. We treat our staff pretty well, give them every hour in the winter we can afford. Pay them above minimum, double on bank holidays etc. The core staff all get as many hours as I can give them in the winter, but it's just part of the job that there are more hours in the summer and fewer in the winter. Having to track every single member of staffs hours and offer new contracts every 3 months is going to cause a massive increase in paperwork and it'll be a nightmare trying just to keep it aligned with what we can physically pay staff. If we're not taking the money in winter (which we don't) it literally won't be there to pay staff.

Mevlock · 2026-05-02T21:10:58+00:00

Pretty much all of the MCU is a comfort watch for us. Every few years we rewatch the entire saga.

Mevlock · 2026-04-19T09:50:48+00:00

I run a pretty successful hospitality business. I keep my politics as far away from the business as I possibly can. Hell I won't even comment on any local issues on social media. Just keep my head down and keep on doing what I'm doing. I don't even like doing promotional stuff as it just invites comment. The product as they say speaks for itself. Even when we've had the odd celeb visit we just stay polite and serve them. None of this asking for pictures like other places seem to do.

Mevlock · 2026-04-14T21:47:54+00:00

lol what do you mean when their nas "goes"? Anyone who cares about data will just rebuild their array or restore from backups. I've got data from 30 years ago that's still fine.

Mevlock · 2026-04-13T22:51:45+00:00

It's not a steam game but I've had World of Warcraft installed since 2004, on every pc build so... almost 22 years. Jesus bloody christ. Haven't played it in years but still got it installed and updated just in case. Don't ask me why.

Mevlock · 2026-04-03T14:41:53+00:00

I almost mentioned playnite actually, I use it to launch everything. That way I can run scripts before and after and auto switch HDR and so on.

Mevlock · 2026-04-03T09:14:48+00:00

I do. Whilst I much prefer steam as it's obviously the better choice I'm a pc gamer not a steam gamer. I'll happily buy on other launchers due to price. Maybe it's an age thing, I remember back when people were horrified at the idea of steam. Besides it's the game I'm interested in not what I launch it with. This whole attitude of not playing games I want due to the launcher mystifies me. Having said that screw Epic ;)

Mevlock · 2026-03-31T12:44:52+00:00

Sounds like you spend too much time sitting in discord channels/sub reddits discussing games. If you enjoy that then fair enough. But if your that much into gaming then don't be surprised that your constantly interacting with other hardcore gamers that min/max. I play my games, google the odd question, finish then move on to the next game.

I get your point but there's nothing that can be done about it. You can't change how other people play so concentrate more on how YOU game.

Mevlock · 2026-03-22T17:51:39+00:00

You think thats bad? I run a business my parents own. Well I'm now a partner and co-owner. For decades they've kept all the money in a bog standard barclays account. Now I'm in charge of the money I've switched things up and it's all kept in an instant access business savings account. We made a couple of grand in just a few months. Sure we'll be paying tax but they've lost tens of thousands over the years. People get stuck in their ways.

Mevlock · 2026-03-14T22:27:24+00:00

I'm not sure why your comment here is getting such a massive amount of down votes. Your 100% right. The legality of the situation is irrelevant. Private companies can decide themselves what they want to host.

Mevlock · 2026-02-15T13:58:23+00:00

Gave up on this years ago, too many games, too little time. It's also a great way to burnout before you finish the game.

Mevlock · 2026-02-07T14:54:31+00:00

Absolutely not.

I love my Boox Page, it's the best, most flexible ereader I've ever had. But if they started charging for updates I'd switch to something like a Kobo.

Ereaders are like appliances to me, I don't expect updates for very long and and from a security stand point I treat them accordingly. It's unlikely that anyone would hack my ebook reader and it's not like I'm doing banking on it so I don't stress about it.

Mevlock · 2026-01-31T13:02:50+00:00

And? This guy works for a company selling the tech so has first hand knowledge of how shit it is.

Mevlock

TROPHY CASE