I'm in the Clarks Flexible Pension Scheme

We are pleased to confirm that we are launching the new Clarks Flexible Savings Plan as outlined in the consultation. For you this means you can get higher company contributions to your pension, more choice on how you take your benefits and more flexible options to help you save in the future.

The decision has been made that we will implement the changes for Scheme members as outlined in the consultation. We will:

• Close the Scheme on 31 July 2018. This means that, as we set out in the consultation proposals, you will stop building up benefits in the Scheme on 31 July 2018 and you will become a deferred member of the Scheme. The benefits you have built up in the Scheme up to the closure date will be preserved in the Scheme and will be available to you at retirement. You should refer to the materials provided to you during the consultation in order to understand how the closure of the Scheme will affect the benefits that you have built up in the Scheme. If you have built up pension benefits under the Pay Related Section of the Scheme, you should note, in particular, that this means that your pension will be calculated by reference to your ‘Final Pensionable Pay’ on 31 July 2018. This means that any salary increases awarded after 5 April 2018 will not be taken into account when calculating your pension under the Pay Related Section of the Scheme.
• Launch a new defined contribution pension plan, the Clarks Flexible Savings Plan, with generous matching company contributions and full flexibility at retirement, which will be open to all our employees. The new Clarks Flexible Savings Plan will be run by Aviva. You will automatically become a member of the new Plan from 1 August 2018.
• Offer you flexibility over how you spend your contributions to help you to build up savings and take benefits in a way that works best for you. For example, once you have saved a minimum amount into your pension, you can pay some contributions into a workplace ISA with Aviva.
• Provide you with a death-in-service lump sum benefit of 8 x Basic Pay, when you join the new Clarks Flexible Savings Plan. This will be payable instead of the benefits that are currently payable on death in pensionable service under the Scheme.

There are two areas where we have changed our original proposals, which may be of interest to you:

• Flexible workplace savings. We have amended our original proposal in terms of how much can be saved into an ISA, once you have paid a minimum 4% contribution into the new Clarks Flexible Retirement Plan. See the Q&As for details.
• Flexible retirement. Once you reach age 55, we will allow you to draw your pension from the Scheme (after it is closed) and continue working at Clarks if you wish. You will have the same flexibility on retirement from the Plan. This will provide you with even more flexibility on how you use your combined pension benefits.

For now, you don’t need to do anything. You will be enrolled into the Clarks Flexible Savings Plan on 1 August 2018. Clarks has appointed Aviva, a trusted and well-known UK pension provider, to run the new Plan on behalf of Clarks.

In conjunction with Aviva, we will provide more information about the new Plan in due course, including:

• full details of how the new Plan works;
• your contribution and investment options;
• more information on the new additional savings options including ISAs.

We will also hold presentation/video sessions in May and June, to give you more information about the Clarks Flexible Savings Plan and answer any questions you may have.

We and the Scheme Trustee are discussing the possible transfer of existing defined contribution pension accounts from the Scheme to the Clarks Flexible Savings Plan. We will be in touch again shortly about this.