When you leave the Scheme your DB benefits will be based on your DB pensionable salary at that date (you’ll lose the link to any future increases to your salary) and the money you and your employer are putting into your DC pension pot will stop.

You can find out more about your options on leaving the Scheme in the member guide, ‘Your DB and DC pension benefits working together’ (4.6MB, PDF) in our Information Centre, as well as on the ‘Opting out or leaving the scheme’ page.

You can put as much money as you want each year into your DC pension pot, but there’s a limit to the amount of savings the government will let you have tax relief on. The overall limit each year is called the ‘Annual Allowance’. Anything that you or HSBC puts into your DC pension pot above the Annual Allowance is taxed at your marginal rate of tax, unless you can ‘carry forward’ unused Annual Allowance from up to three previous tax years. For more information about the effect of the salary linkage on your Annual Allowance please refer to the ‘Your DB and DC pension benefits working together (4.6MB, PDF) ’.

Also, if you make contributions to any other registered pension scheme these will also count towards your Annual Allowance limit. 

If you build up a large amount of pension savings over your lifetime, you may reach what is known as the ‘Lifetime Allowance’ (LTA). This amount includes the value of your pension entitlement built up across all registered pension schemes that you’ve been a member of, not just the HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Scheme. 

If your savings exceed the LTA you’ll have to pay a tax charge on the excess, unless you have LTA tax protection. 

You can find out more about the Annual Allowance and LTA here.

If, while working for HSBC, you want to stop paying into your DC pension pot, you can simply visit My Choice on the My Benefits website. If you opt out, HSBC will stop putting money into your DC pension pot, your own contributions will also stop and you’ll be treated as a leaver. As an opt-out member, you’ll still be covered for the lump sum death benefit, payable through the Life Assurance Scheme. Your spouse/civil partner won’t be eligible for a pension if you die in service.

You can find more information on this under the ‘Leaving the Scheme' section on the Leaving HSBC page.

If you die while you’re working for HSBC, there are a few ways in which your family and dependants could get financial help. These include:

• Lump sum death benefit
• Spouse/civil partner’s pension
• Dependant’s allowance
• Children’s allowance

For more information about protection benefits, visit the ‘Choose your beneficiaries’ page and click on the question mark. 

Want to work out exactly how much financial support your family would receive? You can use the calculations and examples in the ‘Your DB and DC pension benefits working together’guide. (4.6MB, PDF).

Any consideration of a divorcing couple’s assets usually includes pension rights. Our HSBC Administration Team can help if you want more information. Remember to update your personal details if you’re getting divorced or dissolving your civil partnership. You should also make sure your details are up to date on the Nominations page in Member Self Service. From 30 May 2022 you will need to update these details on the nominations page on MSS. 

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If you’re on long-term sick leave or go on maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoption leave, HSBC will keep putting money into your DC pension pot and will base these payments on your DC pensionable salary. You can keep putting money into your DC pension pot as well. The amount you pay will be based on the salary you actually receive during your period of absence, rather than your DC pensionable salary. If your salary is reduced (or if you’re not being paid) any benefits that continue to be provided would be based on the notional pensionable salary that you would receive if you were at work.  

If you leave employment due to redundancy and have a ‘protected pension age’ (younger than age 55) you must leave service and take all your benefits (including any Additional Voluntary Contributions) at the same time to take advantage of it. Your DB member guide and, if applicable, the 2009 Change leaflet gives more information on which members can take these benefits before age 55.