Making payments is simple with NEST

Payment schedules and contribution schedules

Keeping track of who you need to contribute for, how you work out your contributions and when you'll pay, is done through a payment schedule.

You'll set up your payment schedule when you sign up to NEST.

You'll also submit a contribution schedule each time you make a contribution.

The contribution schedule tells us who worked during each pay period and how much each member’s contributions for that period are.

Giving us payment information

You submit a contribution schedule online for each pay period. If you have any new joiners or leavers, you just need to let us know when you submit your new schedule.

If you want to, you can copy last month’s schedule and update only the details that have changed. This may save you time if most of your staff earn the same amount each month.

Putting you in control of how frequently you pay

With NEST you can pay contributions weekly, monthly or every four weeks.

You can also choose how you want to pay. NEST accepts Direct Debit, debit card, or Direct Credit.

Whichever payment method you choose, you’ll always have control of how and when your payments are made. If you choose Direct Debit we'll never take money from your account until you tell us to.

When to pay

When and how much you pay is agreed between you, as the employer, and NEST. This happens when you submit your payment schedule and agree to the Employer Terms and Conditions.

You can view the terms and conditions with plain language guidance explaining what they mean for you.

By law, worker contributions must be paid to us no later than the 19th day of the month following the month in which they were taken out of the worker's pay.

For example, if a worker’s contribution is taken from their earnings on 25 July, and their contributions are paid monthly, then for the calendar month of July their contribution would need to be paid to NEST no later than 19 August. However you could choose any time between the beginning of July and 19 August.

Using single and multiple group schemes

NEST provides flexibility for both large and smaller employers on how they want to use the scheme.

You can use NEST so that it treats all of your workers in the same way.

If you prefer, you can set up arrangements that have different provisions applying to different groups of workers. You can then tell us the contributions you'll make for each group as a percentage of their earnings, and how often you want to pay.

This could work for your organisation if you have different categories or pay grades and you want to vary contributions for each group.