Actively at work
Actively at work is a restriction required by insurers in relation to the life assurance and income protection benefits only. On joining MetLife and becoming eligible for these benefits, you must be actively at work. The same requirement applies for subsequent increases in benefits either at annual enrolment or after opening a life event.
Being actively at work means a number of things:
- You must be present at your place of work;
- You must not have received medical advice to refrain from work;
- You must be mentally and physically capable of performing fully the normal regular duties associated with the job you are engaged to do; and
- You must be working your normally contracted number of hours, either at normal place of business or at a location to which MetLife requires you to travel.
Special rules apply if you are on holiday at the start of the My Choices year. In this instance, to receive cover you must have been actively at work immediately before commencing your holiday.
If you are not actively at work when choosing the above benefits, and there is a subsequent claim, you will not be covered.
If you wish to increase the above benefits in the future you must be actively at work on the date the increase is to take effect (typically the start of the plan year).
Maternity Leave absence counts as 'actively at work'.
If you increase the benefit after experiencing a life event, you are required to be actively at work on the date when the benefit becomes effective. If you are absent on the effective date, cover will commence once you return to work.
The benefit insurer will look to retrospectively check that the actively at work requirement was met at the point of a claim.
Annual enrolment
This is the three week period during November and December each year when you can choose your annual My Choices benefits for the forthcoming year.
Benefit entitlement
Your benefit entitlement is what the company is funding, including for example holiday and private medical insurance for yourself.
My Choices enrolment salary
For the 2017 My Choices year, this is your annual reference salary as at 1 November 2016, or your date of joining MetLife if later.
This salary is used to calculate the cost of your benefits during the year, with the exception of pension benefits which are based on pensionable salary as defined by the plan rules.
Your My Choices enrolment salary is relevant only for the purposes of My Choices, and does not affect any other benefit you may be eligible to receive from MetLife outside My Choices.
My Choices year
The My Choices year runs from 1 January to 31 December each year.
Each My Choices years will run from 1 January to 31 December subject to any changes that MetLife may introduce.
Benefit-in-kind
This is a benefit where the value is treated as earned income by HM Revenue & Customs. A benefit-in-kind provided to you in exchange for salary sacrifice will be tax neutral as you will pay tax on the benefit and save tax on the pay you have given up. However, most benefits-in-kind are not subject to employee National Insurance Contributions so you will make a saving on these.
Where your My Choices benefits include benefits-in-kind, the value will be taxed via PAYE through payroll.
Benefit provider
A company or organisation that provides one or more of the benefits offered through My Choices. All benefits are subject to the benefit provider's terms and conditions.
Children
Your natural children, your legally adopted children, your step children, children for whom you are the legal guardian, foster children, or children of your partner. Children must be unmarried to be eligible for benefits and for different benefits are eligible for cover up to the age of 18, 21, or 24 if in full time education. Please refer to the individual benefit pages for the maximum age of children for each benefit.
You should always refer to the relevant benefit terms and conditions for information about any specific restrictions that may apply.
Default benefits
These are the benefits that will automatically be allocated to you for the My Choices year if you do not make any benefit choices during annual enrolment (or your initial enrolment if you join mid-year). Your default benefits are those that are shown on the enrolment page in the 'My choices' section when you first enter the My Choices website. They are normally the benefits you selected in the previous My Choices year subject to any changes in My Choices benefits, their costs and/or their terms and conditions with the following exceptions:
- Holiday and health assessment: you will always be defaulted to your benefit entitlement
- Cycle to work, dining card and gym membership: you will be defaulted to 'No selection' and will have to reselect the benefit if you would like to receive it in the following My Choices year.
- Flex pot: Any unallocated flex pot will be paid into the pension plan by default if you are a pension plan member. If you are not a pension plan member, it will be donated to the charity of the year. Please note that if some or all of your flex allowance is defaulted into the pension, the contribution will not be matched by the company.
At a life event, you will automatically continue all existing eligible benefits if you do not make an active choice.
For more information, please see the 'how My Choices works' section of this website.
Earnings threshold
The minimum level at which employee National Insurance Contributions are payable. This is £8,064.12 per annum for the 2016/17 tax year.
Enrolment form
The enrolment form is the website page under 'Your choices' where you can choose your My Choices benefits.
Family
Your family includes your partner and your children.
Flex pot
The flex pot section at the top of the enrolment page contains your flex allowance and, if applicable, the funding provided by the company for any benefit protections.
Income tax
Income tax is the UK tax that is paid on your total income in a tax year, once your personal allowances have been taken into account (your 'taxable income'). For employees, income tax is generally collected through the PAYE system operated by employers – you will be allocated a tax code based on your allowances and other income (such as benefits-in-kind) and your employer deducts the tax due according to that code and pays it to HM Revenue & Customs.
You may have other sources of income in which case you will normally have to complete an annual tax return. This ensures that any tax due which has not been collected through the PAYE system is paid.
Life event
Certain defined events allow you to change some of your benefit choices during the My Choices year, if you wish. These include:
- Change in childcare arrangements
- Change of pension contribution
- Change in marital status or partner (marriage, new partner, divorce or legal separation)
- Change in number of dependants (e.g. birth/adoption of a child, death of a dependant)
- Going on or returning from parental or maternity leave
- Going on or returning from extended unpaid leave
- Going on or returning from income protection
- Going on or returning from overseas assignment
- A significant change in your salary or working hours
Not all life events allow you to change your benefits, and some of the insured benefits will only allow a limited number of life events each year. Go to Making changes at a life event in the 'How My Choices works' section for more details and to review a summary table setting out the main life events.
If you want to change your pension contributions, or childcare voucher selections, you can request a life event for these benefits at any point during the My Choices year.
Lower earnings limit
This is the level of earnings below which no National Insurance Contributions are due from either employee or employer (this is £5,824 per annum for 2016/17 tax year)
Minimum benefits
This is the minimum level of benefit that you must take within My Choices and forms part of your benefit entitlement at MetLife. Minimum benefits are as follows:
- Holiday – you can only reduce by a maximum of five days (full time equivalent)
- Life assurance – two times reference salary
- Income protection – 60% of reference salary
National Insurance Contributions
These are paid on earnings between the lower earnings limit and the upper earnings limit. These contributions are 12% of earnings. Contributions are also paid at a rate of 2% on earnings above the upper earnings limit.
Many of the benefits that you can choose within My Choices are exempt from National Insurance.
National Living Wage
The national living wage is set by the Government each year and is the minimum hourly rate that you can be paid if you are aged 25 or over. This is launched for the first time in April 2016 and the rate will be:
- £7.20 per hour for workers aged 25 years and older
Although you can give up some of your salary to increase your benefits over and above the value of your flex pot, you cannot reduce your salary below the national living wage level. If your proposed benefits would have the effect of reducing your salary to below the national living wage, you will be asked to adjust your choices accordingly.
National Minimum Wage
The National Minimum Wage is set by the Government each year and is the minimum hourly rate that you can be paid. For the year starting 1 January 2017, the rate is:
- £7.20 per hour for workers aged 24 years and older
- £6.95 per hour for workers aged 21 years and 24 years
- A development rate of £5.55 per hour for workers aged 18-20 inclusive
- £4.00 per hour for all workers under the age of 18, who are no longer of compulsory school age
Although you can give up some of your salary to increase your benefits over and above the value of your flex pot, you cannot reduce your salary below the National Minimum Wage level. If your proposed benefits would have the effect of reducing your salary to below the National Minimum Wage, you will be asked to adjust your choices accordingly.
Net pay deduction
Net pay deduction means deductions from your net pay. Your net pay is your salary after the deduction of income tax and National Insurance Contributions, and any other deductions that have been withheld from your pay.
The only benefits within My Choices that operate on a net pay deduction basis as standard are dining card and charity donations.
Option cost
This is the cost of the options that are shown to you on your enrolment form. These reflect the cost of the benefit option to you. If the total cost of your benefit selections is a positive amount exceeding your flex pot, this will result in salary sacrifice being applied. If you choose to reduce your holiday and do not spend the released value on other benefits, the total cost will be a negative amount and is a credit which will result in an increase to your cash salary.
Partner
This is your legal Spouse, Civil Partner, or the person who is co-habiting with you whether of the same or opposite sex. They must not be related to you (except by marriage) and must be over 18 and financially interdependent with you.
For certain benefits this definition may differ. Please refer to the individual benefit pages.
You can only nominate one person as your partner at any time.
Pensionable salary
Your pensionable salary is the salary on which your pension contribution is calculated. This is your reference salary.
Plan age
This is the age you, your partner and/or your children have attained at the start of the relevant My Choices year and will be used to calculate the cost of certain benefits for the My Choices year. For new joiners, the plan age will be the age attained upon joining.
Programme variations
MetLife reserves the right to modify, suspend, substitute or discontinue specific benefits within My Choices, to modify, suspend or substitute the terms and conditions on which My Choices benefits are offered or to modify, suspend, substitute or discontinue My Choices if appropriate, at its absolute discretion.
Reference salary
This is your gross annual salary before you make your choices under My Choices. It is this salary that will be used for all salary related calculations for example, bonus, salary increases, pension contributions and other benefit calculations. This is to ensure that your benefits do not reduce as a result of you making choices through My Choices.
Salary related benefits
These are linked to a percentage/multiple of your reference salary e.g. life assurance, income protection and pension benefits depending on the rules of the relevant benefit.
Salary sacrifice
Salary sacrifice is an arrangement where you give up part of your salary in return for which you receive a non-cash benefit. Salary sacrifice is a variation to your contractual terms and conditions of employment.
By receiving benefits under a salary sacrifice arrangement, there will be a reduction in your salary and, if this is replaced by income tax and/or National Insurance Contribution exempt benefits, a reduction in the amount of National Insurance Contributions or income tax that you pay. The amount of the reduction in salary will be shown on the enrolment page.
However, you should be aware that by agreeing to reduce your salary, this could affect the level of certain State benefits you may be eligible to receive, for example, statutory maternity pay or State pension. For more information please see the 'How My Choices works' section of this website.
Your salary before you make any choices under My Choices will be recorded and maintained as your reference salary and will be the salary that is used to calculate other salary related benefits and compensation.
Upper accrual point
The maximum amount of salary on which Second State Pension (S2P) accrues. This is £40,040 per annum for the 2016/17 tax year.
Upper earnings limit
The maximum amount of salary on which the standard rate of employee National Insurance Contributions are payable. This is £43,000 p.a. for the 2016/17 tax year. Salary in excess of this amount will be subject to 2% employee National Insurance Contributions.