To keep our helplines available for our most vulnerable customers, please could we ask that you only call if you need help to access your pension benefits, have an urgent enquiry about an important life event including serious ill health or a bereavement or, you cannot use email.  

As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, our lines are extremely busy and you may experience longer waiting times than normal. Please bear with us and we’ll answer your call as soon as we can.

If you’re following up on an earlier request, please note that this will have been passed to a member of our home-based team who will be progressing your request and will contact you if they need anything further.

For non-urgent enquiries you may find it useful to log into your account at:

www.legalandgeneral.com/manageyouraccount

Here, you’ll be able to register to manage your account, perform a range of tasks and access our designated COVID-19 support page which may answer your enquiry. Here you can also send us your request online through our Secure Message Centre (SMC).

If you want to see which funds you’re invested in and check the value of your pot, you can use our online account management facility Manage Your Account.

If you haven’t already registered, all you need is your pension account number which you’ll find in your plan documentation and annual statements.

You’ll also be able to watch a short video entitled ‘Before you change your investments’ and find a link to our fund centre which shows you what else is available.

If you’re unsure how to proceed, you might like to get professional financial advice. If you haven’t got a financial adviser, you can find a list of advisers at unbiased.co.uk.

Advisers usually charge for their services. You may be able to pay for financial advice direct from your pension pot without the need to draw on other savings. Ask your adviser for details.

If you’re over 55 and thinking of taking your pension benefits now, you will crystallise current losses and might lose the opportunity to recoup those losses in the future.

We recommend you take advantage of the  free and impartial guidance provided by the government through a number of organisations to help you understand how your pension works and the options for taking your money out. You should consider current market conditions when withdrawing pension savings, it is important to know that your pot could change in value between our receipt of your request to withdraw your savings and the contractual settlement date when we release the value of your pension.

They can’t provide personal advice, and won’t recommend particular investment options or products but they will help you understand what’s available and the things you need to think about.

You can contact them by phone, post, online or web chat.

See websites for more information.

Alternatively, if you’re unsure how to proceed, you might like to get professional financial advice. If you haven’t got a financial adviser, you can find a list of advisers at unbiased.co.uk.

Our workplace pensions are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) so you could claim compensation from them (subject to certain limits and conditions) in the unlikely event we’re unable to fulfil our financial obligations to you. See your member’s booklet for more information or visit FSCS.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not protect you from falls in value due to stock market volatility or currency fluctuations.

The current situation has led to an increased risk of scams and fraud. Scams are often smart, sophisticated and hard to spot so we've put together the information below to help you protect yourself.

• Your financial information and secure login details are valuable, so don’t share them with anyone – even if they’re claiming to be us. We’ll never ask you to tell us these.
• Choose passwords you can remember easily instead of writing them down.
• Scams usually start with someone getting in touch out of the blue. An email, a phone call or text message you weren’t expecting can be convincing, but stay wary and hang up or don’t reply. If you’re at all concerned you should contact your provider.
• Don’t click links or open emails unless you’re confident the email is really from a sender you know.
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Stay sceptical. 
• Scammers often try to put pressure on you to make quick decisions. Always take your time to check things out before going ahead.
• We’ll never ask you to move money to a ‘safe’ account, so if someone contacts you asking you to do this, it’s a scam.
• Scammers take advantage of current events to steal, so check a trusted source, like the Money Advice Service, regularly to stay a step ahead of the latest scams. Right now, look out for people and organisations you don’t know asking for contributions towards COVID-19 relief.

The types of scams people might try

If you have a pension

Pension scams usually involve a contact out of the blue for an offer that’s too good to be true. It usually involves promising to help you ‘unlock’ your pension by transferring money to a different pension scheme. Retirees and people nearing retirement are targeted because they’re able to access large sums of money.

What to do

As well as following the tips in the bullet points, you should:

• check the contact details of anyone who gets in touch with the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Services Register to make sure that you’re dealing with a genuine firm.
• refuse to give out any of your personal, investment or pension details.
• be wary of any calls, letters or emails offering advice about what you should do with your ReAssure policy if you have one. As news of Legal and General’s proposed transfer to ReAssure is in the public domain, fraudsters may attempt to use this information to scam you. Remember that neither Legal & General nor ReAssure will ask you for your bank details or any other financial information because of the proposed transfer. 

Stay a step ahead of coronavirus scams

You can find out more about how fraudsters are taking advantage of the pandemic to scam people by reading the government’s website and Financial Conduct Authority’s specialist web page.

Help if you’ve been scammed

If the worst has happened, you can contact Action Fraud police for advice by calling 0300 123 2040 or visiting their website www.actionfraud.police.uk. You could also call the police directly by dialling 101.

The spread of COVID-19 has contributed to a significant fall in share prices and other investments which has meant, for many people, a reduction in the value of their pension pot.

Volatility can be expected for some time to come and this can be worrying, especially for less experienced investors. However, investments such as pensions are for the long term and history suggests that, after markets go down, they will go back up again at some point.

Pensions are a long-term investment and are expected to go up and down in value to varying degrees and from time to time according to the performance of the underlying assets.

Our workplace pensions are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme so you could claim compensation from them (subject to certain limits and conditions) in the unlikely event we’re unable to fulfil our financial obligations to you. See your member’s booklet for more information or visit www.fscs.org.uk.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not protect you from falls in value due to stock market volatility or currency fluctuations.

We aren’t authorised to give personal financial advice but, if you’re thinking about switching your investment, it’s something that needs to be considered very carefully.

If you switch out of a current investment into a less volatile investment, while reducing risk going forward, this would crystallise current losses and you might lose the opportunity to recoup losses in the future. Less volatile funds may also have less scope for growth in the future.

If you want to see which funds you’re invested in and check the value of your pot, you can use our online account management facility which you'll find at Manage Your Account.

If you haven’t already registered, all you need is your pension account number which you’ll find in your plan documentation and annual statements.

You’ll also be able to watch a short video entitled ‘Before you change your investments’ and find a link to our fund centre which shows you what else is available.

If you’re unsure how to proceed, you might like to get professional financial advice. If you haven’t got a financial adviser, you can find a list of advisers at unbiased.co.uk.

Advisers usually charge for their services. You may be able to pay for financial advice direct from your pension pot without the need to draw on other savings. Ask your adviser for details.

It’s impossible to predict but we do know that markets can and do recover.

For instance, if you look at the performance of the FTSE 100 and other indices on London Stock Exchange, you’ll see how markets have gone up and down since records began.

Investing in cash is considered to be less risky with a lower potential for growth than other asset classes but interest rates are at an all-time low and inflation will tend to reduce the buying power of your money, especially over the long term.

If you’re unsure how to proceed, you might like to get professional financial advice. If you haven’t got a financial adviser, you can find a list of advisers at unbiased.co.uk.

You should check the value of your pension savings and any other sources of income including the state pension.

Then look at your outgoings and calculate how much you think you’ll need.

You can use your pension pot to buy an annuity which pays a guaranteed income for life or you can leave it invested and draw down an income from time to time, whichever option suits you best.

Obviously, the longer your money is invested the more it has the potential to grow but it will still go up and down in value from time to time.

You can use the government’s free and impartial Pension Wise service for general guidance and, if you want personal financial advice, you can find an authorised adviser at unbiased.co.uk.

If you’re in a final salary scheme or have bought a pension annuity, the amount you receive should not be affected by recent market performance.

If you’re in a defined contribution scheme, the value of your pot may have reduced in value but it is important to consider this against your overall circumstances and when you need to access it.

You can’t normally take money out of a pension until you’re at least 55 unless in certain circumstances of serious ill health.

If you’re over 55 and thinking of taking your money out, we recommend you talk to the government’s free and impartial Pension Wise service.

They can’t provide personal advice and won’t recommend particular investment options or products but they will help you understand what’s available and the things you need to think about.

You can contact them by phone, post, online or web chat.

If you’re still unsure how to proceed, you might like to get professional financial advice. If you haven’t got a financial adviser, you can find a list of advisers at unbiased.co.uk.

If you take your pension benefits now when the market is down, you will crystallise current losses and might lose the opportunity to recoup those losses in the future.

If you need money in the short to medium-term and have savings that could be used instead, you might want to consider taking some money from those alternative sources, if that still leaves money in rainy day funds, rather than to crystallise losses in your pension.

If you really need or want to take your pension benefits now, you should think about only cashing in what you need

If you are planning to access your pension savings during the current market uncertainty, it is important to think about whether you could lose out significantly in the longer term. Should you require money in the short to medium-term, it’s worth considering all options available to you and whether you can take income from alternative sources.

When considering if you need to access your retirement savings, it is also important to understand the time it can take to collect the required information to complete your request.  The amount shown on your quotation is not guaranteed and the amount available at the time of payment will be different.  In periods of market uncertainty this can lead to fluctuations in the value of your pension pot. If you’re planning to access your pension savings, you may crystallise current losses and might lose the opportunity to recoup those losses in the future.

We recommend you take advantage of the free and impartial guidance provided by the government through a number of organisations to help you understand how your pension works and the options for taking your money out.

They can’t provide personal advice and won’t recommend particular investment options or products, but they will help you understand what’s available and the things you need to think about.

You can contact them by phone, post, online or web chat. See websites for more information.

Alternatively, if you’re unsure how to proceed, you might like to get professional financial advice. If you haven’t got a financial adviser, you can find a list of advisers at unbiased.co.uk.

If the value of your pot has dropped by at least 10% since you had your quotation, we will call to inform you of this change.  Should you wish to use your pension pot to pay you a regular income, we may disinvest your income payment a number of weeks before you receive it. We do this to remove market exposure whilst we collect your payroll information, for example, your tax code.  

Bereavement Claims

If you are notifying us of a bereavement, the value of the late member’s pot could change between notification and the time we receive confirmation of the death.  Once we are notified of a bereavement we will regularly check electronic records for verification, however, in some circumstances we may need to ask for a copy of an original death certificate. When this is received, the verification will be completed, and the final value of the pension pot can be confirmed.

Pension transfers can mostly continue. However, if you have any investment in any suspended fund this may prevent you from transferring until the suspension is lifted.

You may also want to take into account the potential implications of transferring out during volatile market conditions – for example, you could be ‘out of market’ during significant market movements or be subject to higher transaction costs known as ‘spreads’.

Everyone’s circumstances are different, and if you’re unsure how to proceed, you might like to get professional financial advice. If you haven’t got a financial adviser, you can find a list of advisers at unbiased.co.uk.

If your transfer hasn’t yet been processed, you may be able to cancel if this is what you want to do.

If you want to stop or suspend your pension contributions, contact your HR department at work.

If you do stop paying in, you’ll probably miss out on your employer’s contributions too. See your member’s booklet or speak to your employer for more information.

Yes, most schemes will allow you to re-start your contributions when your finances allow.

See your member’s booklet or speak to your employer more information.

In most cases if you stop paying, your employer stops paying too.

See your member’s booklet or speak to your employer for more information.

You can do it online by logging into your plan at Manage Your Account.

To register all you need is your pension account number which you’ll find in your plan documents and annual statement.

Yes, if you’re over 55 you can take money out of your pot as a regular income or in occasional lump sums.

The first 25% of your pension is usually tax free but the remainder will be taxed as income.

Taking money out will naturally reduce the value of your pot so you need to be mindful of future requirements.

Before doing anything, we recommend you talk to the government’s free and impartial guidance service Pension Wise.

They can’t provide personal advice and won’t recommend particular investment options or products but they will help you understand what’s available and the things you need to think about.

You can contact them by phone, post, online or web chat.

If you’re still unsure how to proceed, you might like to get professional financial advice. If you haven’t got a financial adviser, you can find a list of advisers at unbiased.co.uk.

The UK Government has introduced a temporary job retention scheme to help employers to keep paying their staff even if their business has been badly affected by COVID-19 (coronavirus).

If you’ve been put on furlough, this means that you’re still on your company’s payroll for the time being but have been placed on temporary leave. During this time (a minimum of three weeks) you’re entitled to be paid a minimum of 80% of your usual salary up to £2,500 a month. 

Unless you’ve decided to stop contributing, your pension contributions will be deducted from whatever salary your employer is able to pay you, at the same rate you were paying before you were furloughed.

Your employer is also obliged to continue paying a minimum contribution into your pension pot of 3% of your wages. In other words, if you’re receiving 80% of your usual earnings, you should receive 3% of that amount in addition to any of your own contributions that you’re paying in from your salary.

Please note that some employers may be able to continue paying your full salary and their usual employer pension contributions (if this is more than 3%) but this will depend on their individual circumstances. Your company will be able to advise you on its position.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will operate for at least three months from 1 March. The minimum amount of time you can be furloughed for is three weeks.

More information on coronavirus and your pension is available from the Pensions Advisory Service.

The Money Advice Service is also offering information on your rights and the support that may be available to you.

Your company can claim back the cost of paying your wages and pension contributions from the government. If your employer is unsure of what they need to do, there’s information available to them from The Pension Regulator’s COVID-19 update for employers and administrators.