My Future Fund Update for Employers and Employees

As part of Budget 2026 the Government has provided €154m to cover its contributions to the retirement savings of workers under the new MyFutureFund scheme.

From 1st January employees aged over 22 and earning the equivalent of, or more than, €20,000 p.a. and who are not already contributing via their payroll to a retirement savings scheme will be automatically enrolled into the new state sponsored MyFutureFund retirement savings scheme.

Under the scheme employees will pay 1.5% of their gross income into a personal retirement savings fund, employers will be obliged to match this contribution and the State will also pay a contribution of 0.5%. Over a period of 10 years the contribution rates will increase to 6% from the employee and the employer and 2% from the State.

In practical terms what it means is that, for every €3 a worker saves, the employer will add €3, and the State will add a further €1 turning a €3 contribution by the employee into savings of €7. The employee can then choose to invest these savings into one of three - high, moderate or low risk – investment funds. The accumulated savings plus the investment returns will then be available to the employee when they reach pension age and will help them to increase their retirement income.

An employee who does not want to be a part of the MyFutureFund scheme can opt-out after six months and their personal contributions will be returned to them. Where they remain enrolled, they may opt to suspend contributions at any time in which case the contributions already made will remain invested in the fund. They can then restart contributions at any time.

A key feature of the MyFutureFund scheme is that it is personal to the employee and is not linked to any employer sponsored scheme – under the ‘pot follows the member’ approach their retirement savings automatically move with them as they change jobs with no need to worry about joining a new or different scheme, transfer values, gaps in saving periods or transfer fees.

From an employer’s perspective the MyFutureFund scheme will be fully integrated with payroll systems with contributions deducted automatically. There is no need to set up a scheme on their own account, engage pension advisors, appoint trustees, enrol their employees or pay any employer administration fee. In addition, new hires already part of the MyFutureFund scheme on recruitment, will remain participants in MyFutureFund.

All of the administration is being managed by a new State agency the National Auto-enrolment Retirements Savings Authority based in Letterkenny.

To provide guidance and information to employers the Department of Social Protection has already run a large number of free information webinars attended by thousands of employers. Employers who haven’t already attended can still register - the next webinars will take place on the 5th/6th of November with registration available at MyFutureFund - 5th November Tickets, Wed 5 Nov 2025 at 14:00 | Eventbrite or MyFutureFund - 6th November Tickets, Thu 6 Nov 2025 at 14:00 | Eventbrite

The Department has been advised that some employers may be incorrectly informing staff that because of a change in legislation they are now obliged to join an employer sponsored pension scheme before the end of 2026.

This may be due to a misunderstanding on the part of some employers who have not yet had the opportunity to attend an information webinar.

Accordingly the Department wishes to clarify that has been no change in legislation, nor is there any planned change, that obliges a worker to join an employer sponsored pension scheme, nor is there any change that obliges an employer to enrol their employees into such a scheme.

Employees who are being advised that they must join an employer sponsored scheme should check if this is a condition of their employment contract. If it is not, they are encouraged to carefully consider the terms of membership and the benefits of the employer sponsored scheme.

In particular they should check if the terms of the scheme are more beneficial to them than those of the new MyFutureFund scheme that is due to commence from January 1st.

Employers are reminded that it is an offence, subject to penalties including fines and imprisonment, to take any action that hinders or attempts to hinder an employee from participating in the MyFutureFund scheme.

Detailed information in respect of MyFutureFund is available at www.gov.ie/ae.