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About the Scheme

Careers in the housing association sector can be personally satisfying because you can make a genuine difference to people's lives.

A key advantage of SHPS is that if you change jobs and take up a position with an employer who also participates in the Scheme, and you rejoin the Scheme within 30 days of your date of leaving, you might not have a break in your membership or life assurance cover.

The Scheme offers members a wide range of benefits including:

For Final Salary based benefit structures: 

A pension based on a member's
salary at or close to retirement 		Life assurance cover Dependant's pension benefits (survivor's and children's pensions) Ill-health pension benefits Age-related contribution
bands for employees if selected by your employer

For CARE based benefit structures:

A pension based on a member's
revalued earnings for the period of membership 		Life assurance cover Dependant's pension benefits (survivor's and children's pensions) Ill-health pension benefits Age-related contribution
bands for employees if selected by your employer

For the Final Salary and CARE based defined benefit structures the Scheme is contracted-out of the additional State Pension (the State Second Pension (S2P) - formerly SERPS), so both members and employers pay lower National Insurance Contributions.


For Defined Contribution based benefit structure:

If you are joining the defined contribution (DC) benefit structure which is being introduced from 1 October 2010, the contributions paid into the Scheme by you and your employer will purchase units in an investment fund that you select from the available range. The value of the fund depends upon the number of units held and the current unit price. The benefits payable at retirement will be determined by the following:

  • how much has been paid in;
  • Investment returns;
  • expenses paid;
  • the type of annuity selected at retirement; and 
  • the cost of securing that annuity at the time it is bought.

Eligibility Criteria

Organisations who are, or are eligible to be, members of the following organisations:

  • The National Housing Federation;
  • The Community Housing Cymru;
  • The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations; or
  • The Northern Ireland Federation of Housing Associations
are eligible to join the Scheme provided they hold sufficient units of housing stock. Other non-profit distributing organisations that are connected with the social housing sector may join the Scheme, subject to approval from the SHPS Pensions Committee.
As a multi-employer scheme SHPS offers employers a number of advantages over a separate stand-alone scheme:

  • Administration costs are shared between all participating employers, allowing employers and their employees to benefit from a range of services at a low cost.
  • Straightforward compliance with the accounting standards FRS17 & ISA19 , as    multi-employer schemes are able to take advantage of greatly reduced reporting requirements. An elected committee deals with the funding and policy issues of the Scheme.
  • The Scheme assists recruitment and retention of staff by providing a vehicle that allows continuity of service for members making a career in the social housing sector.
  • Employers offering SHPS to members can do so with minimal resource impact. All an employer is required to do is to collect and pay monthly contributions and tell the administrators about joiners, leavers and changes in employee hours and earnings. The administrators (The Pensions Trust) will do all the rest.