I'm in Plan 35

If you provide your consent to the company’s pension changes (including by agreeing to opt out of Plan 35) by 5pm on Friday 25 May 2018, you will get two transition payments. The first payment of 5% of Basic Pay will be paid in September 2018. The second payment of 15% of Basic Pay will be paid in March 2019.

You will need to still be an employee of Clarks at these dates to be eligible for the transition payments.

These transition payments will be paid into the new Clarks Flexible Savings Plan. Alternatively, you can choose to take these with your pay instead (subject to income tax and national insurance contributions).

We will send you further details on these payments, including how you can elect whether to receive the payments into your pension or as part of your pay, after we have received your returned consent form.

The payments will be calculated based on your Basic Pay as at 1 April 2018. For the purposes of calculating the transition payments, Basic Pay is:

• For salaried employees, paid monthly – basic annual salary only as at 1 April 2018 (including 1 April 2018 increase)
• For non-salaried or salaried employees, paid four weekly – greater of annualised pensionable pay elements for March 2018 (including base pay, additional hours, overtime, shift pay) or new basic annual salary as at 1 April 2018.

You need to still be an employee of Clarks to be eligible for each transition payment. So if you leave before September 2018, you will not receive any payments. And if you leave after September 2018 but before March 2019, you will not receive the second payment.

During consultation we explained that the Rules of Plan 35 may provide more generous early retirement terms for active members of the Plan than for deferred members. On closure of Plan 35, you will become a deferred member and would ordinarily therefore lose these more generous early retirement terms.

Following feedback received during the consultation, Clarks has agreed to protect the early retirement terms that currently apply to active members of Plan 35. In addition, we have decided to remove the requirement (which currently applies for some members) for the company to provide its agreement before an employee can retire early. These enhancements will only be available if you provide your consent to the company’s pension changes (including by agreeing to opt out of Plan 35) by 5pm on Friday 25 May 2018 and whilst you remain an employee of Clarks (when we mention Clarks in this website, we mean any member of the Clarks group). So, if you consent to the company’s pension changes, whilst you remain employed by Clarks, you will be eligible (without the company needing to agree) to retire early on the same terms that currently apply for you under the Rules as an active member.

As a reminder:

• For members who joined on or before 6 April 1992 (or those who are former members of the K Shoes Contributory Pension Scheme) 

  Under the current Rules of the Fund it is possible for active members (and deferred members) who are aged 60 or over to draw their pension without reduction (in some cases, provided the company agrees).After the changes take place, it will still be possible for you to draw your pension from age 60 without reduction in the same way as now. You will not need the company’s agreement to do this. In addition, if you consent to the company’s pension changes and whilst you remain employed by Clarks, the reduction factors that are currently applied for retirement from employment with Clarks before age 60 will continue to apply for you in the same way as they do now (and with no need for the company to agree).

  If you leave Clarks but don’t retire upon leaving employment with Clarks, the deferred member retirement terms under the Rules will apply as normal.

• For members who joined after 6 April 1992 

  Under the current Rules of the Fund it is possible for active members who are aged 62 and over to draw their pension without reduction, provided the company agrees.After the changes take place, if you consent to the company’s pension changes and whilst you remain employed by Clarks, it will no longer be necessary for the company to agree to early retirement. In addition, the current early retirement terms will continue to apply for you on retirement from employment with Clarks, and you will still be able to draw your pension from age 62 without reduction, provided the company agrees. Also, the reduction factors that are currently applied for retirement from employment with Clarks before age 62 will continue to apply for you in the same way as they do now.

Yes. Following feedback during consultation we have agreed that you will be able to draw your pension from the Fund and continue to work at Clarks.

This policy will apply to all of Clarks’ pension plans, including the new Clarks Flexible Savings Plan.

Under the current Rules of the Fund, active members who joined before 1 January 1996 and who have reached age 55 are entitled to receive an unreduced pension if they elect to take immediate early retirement following redundancy.

Following feedback received during the consultation, Clarks has agreed to protect the redundancy terms that currently apply to active members. This means that if you provide your consent to the company’s pension changes (including by agreeing to opt out of Plan 35) by 5pm on Friday 25 May 2018, those members who, prior to the changes, were eligible for the enhanced redundancy benefits set out above, will continue to be eligible for these benefits in the same way as now if they are made redundant by Clarks in the future.

If you joined the Fund before 6 April 1988 on either non-staff or permanent staff conditions of employment and joined Plan 35 with effect from 6 April 1992, you are currently entitled to an additional pension if you retire early from active service. This additional pension is normally paid as a temporary pension or ‘bridging pension’ until a date determined by the Trustee but can instead be taken as a smaller pension element, payable for life.

On closure of Plan 35, you will become a deferred member and would ordinarily therefore lose the right to this bridging pension. In response to feedback during the consultation, we have agreed to maintain bridging pensions to those members of Plan 35 who are currently eligible, if you provide your consent to the company’s pension changes (including by agreeing to opt out of Plan 35) by 5pm on Friday 25 May 2018.

Yes, the company has agreed to change its original proposals and protect the existing ill-health retirement terms, if you provide your consent to the company’s pension changes (including by agreeing to opt out of Plan 35) by 5pm on Friday 25 May 2018.

This means if you retire from service at Clarks because of ill-health and the Trustee decides that you satisfy the eligibility criteria for an incapacity pension paid from the Fund, you will still be entitled to an immediate, unreduced pension from the Fund. The pension will be calculated assuming that you remained in pensionable service until your 65th birthday and by reference to your ‘Final Pensionable Pay’ as at 31 July 2018, adjusted to take account of inflation (subject to certain caps/limits) between then and the date of retirement. The consent of the company is also required.

When Plan 35 closes to future accrual on 31 July 2018, you will stop building up benefits as an active member of the Fund and you will become a deferred member of Plan 35. As a deferred member, your pension built up in the Fund up to 31 July 2018 will be preserved in the Fund and will be available at retirement. Your pension will be calculated in accordance with the Fund Rules which apply for deferred members (subject to the deferred benefit enhancements set out above and in these Q&As). It will be calculated based on your Pensionable Service up to 31 July 2018 and Final Pensionable Pay as at 31 July 2018. In practice (because of the way the Fund’s Rules operate), this means that any pay rises awarded after 5 April 2018 will not be taken into account when calculating your pension (although Pensionable Service between 5 April 2018 and 31 July 2018 will be). An adjustment will be made to your deferred pension to take account of increases in inflation (subject to certain caps/limits) between 31 July 2018 and the date of your retirement.

If you are unsure which of the enhanced deferred benefits from the Fund apply to you or if you do not understand anything in this website (or the letter you were sent), please contact the Pensions Team. You can email them at pensionshelpdesk@Clarks.com.

If you don’t have access to email or would prefer to speak to somebody, you can call our dedicated helpline on 01458 842664.

Community and Unite the Union will be contacting their members regarding the changes and are available to answer questions, if you wish to contact them directly.

If you do not sign and return the consent form by 5pm on Friday 25 May 2018, agreeing to the company’s pension changes (including by agreeing to opt out of Plan 35), you will not receive the transitional payments, or Plan 35 protections described, or be eligible for the additional contribution tier in the Clarks Flexible Savings Plan.

In addition, if you do not consent to the company’s pension changes, after 28 May 2018, we will engage with you further regarding our intention to close Plan 35 to future accrual. This could include discussions with you over the potential termination of your current contract of employment and re-engagement on a new contract with new pension terms (all other terms of your employment would stay the same). This would mean you would only be eligible to join the new Clarks Flexible Savings Plan on standard terms and would be treated as a standard deferred member in Plan 35.

Clarks has appointed Aviva, a trusted and well-known UK pension provider, to run the new Plan.

Aviva will provide online and face-to-face sessions to Clarks employees in May and June, giving you more information about the Clarks Flexible Savings Plan and answering any questions you may have. They will also send a booklet about the new pension to your home address, so please do make sure we have your latest details.

As a current member of Plan 35, the additional contribution tier will be available to you when you join the Clarks Flexible Savings Plan, if you provide your consent to the company’s pension changes (including by agreeing to opt out of Plan 35) by 5pm on Friday 25 May 2018.

Under the additional contribution tier, if you contribute 8% or more of your Basic Pay into the Clarks Flexible Savings Plan, Clarks will pay contributions equal to 12% of your Basic Pay. This is an increase from the 11% company contribution in our original proposals, and is more generous than the maximum company contribution of 10% of Basic Pay which will be available to other employees. Basic Pay is your gross earnings excluding any bonuses, allowances and other amounts which the company treats as non-pensionable.

If you do not provide your consent to the company’s pension changes by 5pm on Friday 25 May 2018, you will not be eligible to receive contributions on the basis of this additional contribution tier.

As part of the new Clarks Flexible Savings Plan we are allowing members who have paid a minimum amount into their pension, to save some of their extra contributions into an ISA as well as pension.

Under our original proposals, if the total paid into your pension account was at least 9% of Basic Pay, you would be able to choose to pay the balance into an ISA (Individual Savings Account). As a result of feedback raised during the consultation, we have sought to find a balance between the immediate savings needs of our employees and their long-term financial security.

Therefore, our original proposal has been amended so that while one half of the balance can be paid into an ISA, the other half will be paid into the member’s pension account.

*only applicable to members of Plan 35 who consent to the changes

The workplace ISA will also be provided by Aviva. Once you have been enrolled into the Clarks Flexible Savings Plan, Aviva will send you details of how to select the ISA option. Remember, you have to choose to pay at least 4% of your Basic Pay into the Clarks Flexible Savings Plan before you can start to use the ISA.