Salary Sacrifice into Work Pension or pay into SIPP

[Skyedriver]

Am I better off paying a lump sum [£700] into my works pension via Salary Sacrifice or paying the same sum into my Hargreaves Lansdowne SIPP?
I assume its the former as there'll be a NI saving too but I'm a bit unsure
Thanks

[LeoSayer]

Salary sacrifice will give you NI savings and some employers might give you some of the company NI saving as well.

The drawback with salary sacrifice is that you will probably have a more limited range of investment choices than you'll get from a SIPP. However you can always transfer out of the work scheme, but this might be limited to once a year.

If you're a higher earner then it can be more efficient to pay salary sacrifice in one lump rather than spread out through the year due to the way NI is calculated.

[z4RRSchris]

NI saving, and if your work is nice you get their ni saving too

[ellroy]

You may also be saving on the fees side via the workplace arrangement as well as sometimes getting additional monies added via matched contributions to a cap. Check out the terms of the contract in detail.

[Skyedriver]

THanks everyone.
Lucky enough to just exceed the £43k limit next year and have increased my monthly payment

[Welshbeef]

Out of interest what effective % of gross are you paying into pensions in total (incl employers contribution)?

[rotarymazda]

Skyedriver said:

Am I better off paying a lump sum [£700] into my works pension via Salary Sacrifice or paying the same sum into my Hargreaves Lansdowne SIPP?
I assume its the former as there'll be a NI saving too but I'm a bit unsure
Thanks

1. Salary sacrifice into works pension
2. Free partial-transfer into HL SIPP when they have their cash back offers on.
3. Make sure the HL cash back goes to you rather than into your SIPP.

The NI savings can be very significant.

[Skyedriver]

Thanks everyone
Increased the Salary Sacrifice percentage