Pebbles A guide to your benefits

Transcription

1 Pebbles A guide to your benefits

2 2 A guide to your benefits Pebbles is your personal pay and benefits portal it s Benefit where you access your reward Description statement which itemises the regular pay and benefits that make up your annual package value. Your monthly pay advice is loaded into Pebbles on the last working day of the month and it s the place where you make flexible benefit choices each year. Flexible benefits selection through Pebbles is open to all UK-based and paid employees under a standard UK contract of employment. The plan lets you mix and match benefits to suit your needs and because you select most of them by exchanging some of your salary it means you can make valuable income tax and National Insurance Contribution (NIC) savings. Most of the benefit selections you made last year will roll over unless you change them during enrolment. However, your leave benefits will default to your reference entitlement so you must submit a selection if you want to exchange pay for leave. You must also renew any cycle to work, gym membership, dining card or season ticket loan selection. If you selected childcare vouchers since April 2011, you ll need to request a new earnings assessment before enrolment closes. The benefit selections you make stay in place for 12 months (or less if you re joining part way through the year). You can only change your selections at the next annual enrolment period. HMRC are reviewing this tax treatment with the possibility of changes from April How to access Pebbles Access to the Pebbles portal is straightforward through the tools directory on Mott MacDonald s Compass site. Always use this as your preferred route. pebbles.mottmac.com In this case, a Pebbles password must be obtained by clicking on Request a password on the log in page at Click on the orange Enter portal link from the UK Pebbles page and re-enter your network password to gain automatic access. Access away from the office If Compass is not available, you can access the Pebbles portal via any internet browser by going to www. A password will be sent to your work address. Alternative addresses can be set up in advance by calling the Pebbles helpdesk on Detailed guidelines to accessing the portal are available on the UK Pebbles intranet page.

3 Pebbles benefits plan at a glance The Pebbles benefits plan offers you the ability to manage the range of benefits set out below. When you re invited to log on to the My benefits section of the Pebbles portal you ll be able to find out more about how the plan works, review the benefits and options available to see what s best for you and enrol to make your selections. Lifestyle Leave Enables you to buy additional days or exchange some of your standard leave entitlement for other benefits or pay. Cycle to work Allows you to lease a bike and/or safety equipment to a value of 1000 (inc VAT) from the company. Gym membership Corporate discounts at UK-wide health clubs for yourself and your partner. Financial Pension Enables you to maximise tax efficiencies and change your level of pension contributions through pension salary exchange. Critical illness insurance Provides a lump sum payment for yourself and dependant children on diagnosis of a specified critical illness. Partner critical illness insurance Provides a lump sum payment if your partner is diagnosed with a specified critical illness. Health Private medical insurance Provides cover for private medical treatment and you can include your partner and dependant children. Dental insurance Contributes to costs whether provided as a private or NHS patient. Childcare vouchers Saves you money on your registered childcare arrangement. Give as you earn Provides a convenient way of donating to charitable organisations of your choice with monthly deductions from your gross salary. Dining Cards Enjoy mid week discounts at restaurants, cinema s and other attractions nationwide. Life assurance Provides a tax free lump sum in the event of death with an option to increase cover. Season ticket loan Enables you to spread the cost of a season ticket for trains, trams, buses and station car parking with an interest free loan, repayable over 10 months. Health screening Provides you with a range of health assessments, from essential to comprehensive screening. Partner health screening Provides your spouse/partner with a health screen. 3

4 Making your choice in 5 easy steps 4 You will be able to make your choices through My benefits during the annual enrolment period. Simply find and click Pebbles in the Compass tools directory where you will find the Enter portal button which will take you straight through to the Pebbles portal. Then click on the My benefits item in the left hand menu. Make sure you submit your benefits during the enrolment period they will then take effect from 1 January. If you don t submit any choices, your benefits will default to those in your current package remember exceptions to this are leave, which reverts to your reference entitlement by default, bikes, gyms, dining cards and season tickets. Your benefit selections will be contractually binding for the 12 month benefit year running from 1 January. If there is a significant personal change that falls within the definition of a life event you may be able to change your benefit selections during the year see the matrix on page 12. Making your benefit selections online is easy. Once you ve received your invitation, visit the Pebbles portal and find out much more about each benefit. Step 1 Log onto My benefits through the Pebbles portal From the Pebbles homepage, simply click on My benefits from the left hand menu. Step 2 Consider which benefits are right for you Read this guide to see what options you have. Think about how you could combine the benefits to better suit your needs or save you money. You may want to take a look at your online reward statement which you can find on the Pebbles portal showing your reference pay and benefits package. These are your entitlements unless you change them via Pebbles flexible benefits. Step 3 Make your selections The first screen you ll see within My benefits will be your Enrol page. This will show a list of all the benefits to which you are currently entitled. On the right of each benefit in the list you ll see a View/Select button. Click on this button to see more information on the benefit and the options you can choose. When you enter details or a choice and select an option you can go back to the enrolment screen and you ll see that the monthly cost is shown. You ll also be able to see the combined impact of your provisional selections on your regular pay. You can save the details of provisional benefits selections by clicking Save before you leave the site BUT for your choices to take effect, you must Submit all your final selections together before the end of the enrolment period. Look for the Save and Submit buttons at the bottom right of the Benefit enrolment screen. Step 4 Submit your selections When you re happy with all the benefits you ve saved and the total monthly value that s shown, click on the Submit button at the bottom of the enrolment page. You ll then need to read the declaration wording and confirm that you re happy for your benefit choices to be submitted. You must complete the Submit step in the process to make your benefit choices effective.

5 Step 5 Confirming your selections Once you ve successfully submitted your choices you ll see that the Enrol page is recaptioned Benefit confirmation and the View/Select buttons you ve been using for enrolment will be reset to View only. Use the Print button at the top right of the screen if you want a record of the choices you ve successfully submitted although you ll be able to review your confirmation statement online at any time during the benefit year. New to Mott MacDonald If you join us after annual enrolment you ll still be able to take part in most of the benefit plans through the Pebbles portal. You ll be given more than two weeks before cut off on the 27th of each month in which to submit your selections. So if for example you start 14 April, you ll automatically be given until 26 May to submit selections which will become effective on 1 June. Things to remember 5 Check dependant details You should check that the personal details held for your dependants on the site are complete and accurate. During enrolment you can do this by clicking the Check dependants button and update details from the Enrol page. It is important that you do this as you will only be able to select benefits for your spouse/partner/children if you fill in their details. Save and submit If you Save a mix of benefits and don t Submit them, your choices won t come into effect because you won t have completed enrolment for Pebbles benefits. Defaults Any benefit that you chose last year is set as a default do nothing and you ll be committed to these choices for the next benefit year. The exceptions are cycle to work, season ticket loans, gyms, dining cards and annual leave which reverts back to your reference entitlement of either 30, 33, or 35 days, or hourly equivalent for part time staff. Pebbles helpdesk If you require any assistance during the enrolment window, the Pebbles helpdesk is open 09:00 till 17:00 Monday to Friday. t e pebbleshelp@vebnet.com The helpdesk can assist on enrolment, queries regarding access to Pebbles via and any life event questions or concerns you may have. Your next opportunity If you do not take advantage of this flexible benefit window you will have to wait a year for your next opportunity to participate in Pebbles benefits.

6 Your lifestyle options Benefi t Leave (buy) Description All employees are able to buy additional leave. But there is an annual 45 day maximum which includes your reference allocation (which incorporates company days and public holidays) and any leave you carry over from the previous year (maximum 10 days). You can make exchanges between pay and leave in whole days. on the number of hours you work compared to the full-time equivalent. You can make exchanges between pay and leave in hours. Whether full or part-time, you can only exchange leave in the current benefi t year as long as you have joined the company on or before 10 September. 6 For part-time employees the maximum and minimum amount of leave you can exchange will be prorated depending Carry over leave must be taken by 30 September in the following year. Leave (sell) All employees are able to sell leave to a minimum of 28 days. If you reduce your leave allowance and take the equivalent monthly cash value, you could pay more tax and NICs because your pay may increase depending on your other benefi t selections. Childcare vouchers Edenred, our current provider, will set up an electronic account into which your virtual vouchers are transferred for the payment of registered childcare providers. Currently, this benefi t is both tax and. From early 2017 new UK childcare arragements will apply to new joiners. Savings of up to 1195 per year are available. But since April 2011 new joiners have been restricted by a basic earnings assessment that needs to be completed each year and at life events.

7 Benefi t Gym membership Description Select an annual membership to a maximum value of 1500 ( 3000 if you include a partner) and benefi t from discounts at health clubs UK-wide. You can select a different gym for your partner to yourself. There are no joining fees and you ll save NICs when you select this benefi t. Gym membership can only be selected from 1 January. You will be taxed on this benefi t. 77 Cycle to work This HMRC approved scheme allows you to hire a new bike or just safety equipment worth (inc VAT) free of tax and NICs. Cycle to work can only be selected at annual enrolment because you re locked in for a full benefi t year. Dining card Following annual enrolment, you ll be invited to complete an online hire agreement. You must do this within the week of receipt. Select a Tastecard for up to 50% off food bills at restuarant chains or a Gourmet card for higher end meals. Buy via monthly deduction from net salary. Available at annual enrolment only for yourself and/or a partner.

8 Your fi nancial options Benefi t Description 8 Pension You can either join the Group Personal Pension scheme or manage the level of your contributions for the next benefi t year. Participating in the GPP increases your total package value because of the contributions made by Mott MacDonald. You can also request a life event to join the pension scheme during the benefi t year or increase contributions. Pensions salary exchange applies and in addition to your normal tax concession, your pension contributions through Pebbles are. Season ticket loan Select a loan for travel to work by rail, bus or tram and also cover the car parking associated with your journey. An interest free company loan means that you benefi t from discounts on an annual ticket and spread travel costs over 10 months in the benefi ts year. You must send a copy of your season ticket and ticket photo card or other proof of purchase to EUNA HR by the end of January. Applications for a season ticket loan can be made for 400 up to 10% of reference salary is the maximum loan available. Applications can only be made at annual enrolment and for the full benefi t year. Repayments will be made from your net salary after deductions have been made for tax and NICs.

9 Benefi t Description Critical illness insurance self and partner Provides a tax free lump sum on diagnosis of a critical illness. Choose your level of cover in 25,000 steps up to 4 x your reference salary to a maximum of 150, % of your benefi t up to 20,000 in free cover is provided for dependant children. You can provide insurance for your partner to the same level as yourself up to a maximum of 100,000. Whether you are buying cover for yourself or your partner, this insurance is taxable as a benefi t in kind but you don t pay NICs. Exclusions apply for pre-existing and related conditions when selecting or increasing cover. 9 Life assurance As an employee, you automatically have cover of 4 x reference salary. You can maintain this level of cover or through salary exchange you can increase the cover provided by Canada Life to suit your need, to: 5 x reference salary 6 x reference salary A full health declaration is not typically necessary if you re actively at work and within the free cover limits ( 1.25m). Cover is provided tax and. Unless you are a new joiner with Mott MacDonald, you can only increase your cover by one step at this enrolment.

10 Your health options Benefi t Description 10 Private medical insurance Private medical insurance covers specialist medical treatment for a range of acute diseases, illnesses and injuries. This includes out patient, day care, private hospital and NHS private wing care in all UK regions. There are four levels of cover available: employee only employee and spouse/partner employee and children employee, spouse/partner and children An excess of 150 per claimant is applied to claims in each benefi t year for all members and dependants grades A-I. A full medical declaration will be necessary if you re not an existing member. This also applies to new starters, dependants and rejoiners. This benefi t is taxed but. Dental insurance This Bupa benefi t offers a contribution towards necessary dental treatment, from check-ups to more complex procedures such as bridges and dentures. The range from a basic core through to the top end Level 4 plan means that you can choose the appropriate reimbursement to assist with your dental bills. The main exclusions arise from cosmetic, sporting injury and hospital treatment. Previous dental history will be disregarded. This benefi t is taxed but. You can choose cover to include: employee only employee and spouse/partner employee and children employee, spouse/partner and children

11 Benefi t Health screening Description You can choose from one of four options which have different levels of health and wellbeing assessment criteria to suit your needs. Reasonable time off needs to be agreed with your line manager to attend one of the Nuffi eld regional health centres. Fees are applicable in full irrespective of any life event in the benefi t year, or on leaving the company. 11 You can only select this benefi t during the annual enrolment period. Partner health screening Through Pebbles you can also select a Nuffi eld screening for your partner, with the same range of options at competitive rates. You can only select this benefi t during the annual enrolment period. Partner health screening is taxable as a benefi t in kind, but you won t pay NICs.

12 Life event matrix New joiner Assign/second into UK for >12 months Marriage/civil partnership/ divorce/ separation Death of dependant partner On maternity, adoption, additional paternity leave or birth/adoption On return from maternity, adoption or additional paternity leave Leave buy/sell Cycle to work Childcare vouchers GAYE Pension Additional exchange contributions Critical illness Critical illness spouse/partner Life assurance Season ticket loan Private medical insurance Health screen employee Health screen spouse/partner Dental insurance Gym membership Dining Cards A change is permitted at the time the event occurs, subject to the individual rules for each benefi t This information is for guidance specifi c conditions apply in each case so please check with the Pebbl

13 End of occupational sick pay Change in childcare arrangements Signifi cant change in hours (> 19%) House move or relocation in the UK Promotion with a change in reference benefi ts Signifi cant change in fi nancial circumstances of employee s partner New GPP member/ Increase contributions A change cannot be made until the next annual enrolment period ie the following 1 January es helpdesk on