I’m going on parental leave
If you go on parental leave, your regular contributions and employer subsidy (if applicable) stop. However, you can choose to make voluntary contributions for that time.
If you want to continue making voluntary contributions while you're on parental leave, you need to contact your scheme provider to set up an automatic payment or direct debit from your bank account.
If you're a subsidised member, within 7 months of returning to work, you can make up some or all of the regular employee contributions you have missed.Your employer will match those contributions, up to a maximum of 3% of your salary for the relevant parental leave period. You don't have to make up all the regular contributions you missed if you don't want to.
The minimum amount you must contribute to take advantage of this facility is 1.5% of the salary you would have received for pay periods during the period of leave, or for as many of those pay periods as you choose. It is the higher of your salary just before you left, and the salary you restart on, that is relevant for this purpose.
You can either make increased regular contributions or a lump sum deposit. Or, if you have made voluntary contributions while on parental leave, you can ask your scheme provider to re-classify these voluntary payments as employee contributions.
If you are made redundant during or on return from a period of parental leave, you can still make up the employee contributions for some or all of the time you were on parental leave and receive the matching employer subsidy contributions, as long as payment is made before the effective date of the redundancy.