About membership

Whatever your age and length of service, the Scheme is important to you and can provide valuable benefits. The following pages tell you about the range of benefits provided by the Scheme.

You can only join the Scheme if you are an employee of VisitScotland. The Scheme closed to new employees of VisitBritain from April 2017. Those employed before that date accrued service to 31 March 2020 and were still ‘active members’ however their accrual ceased on 31 March 2020 as they no longer contributed to the scheme. See also Factsheet 4 Contributions.

Membership of the Scheme costs 5% of your pensionable salary – but you get tax relief on your contributions at the highest rate of tax you pay.

Your contributions help to provide a pension for yourself when you retire, and a pension for your spouse or dependant in the event of your death.

Your employer also contributes into the Scheme on your behalf. The Scheme is what’s called a ‘balance of cost’ arrangement, which means that the employers contribute whatever else is necessary in order to provide the promised level of benefits. Currently, the employer contributes 25.1% of pensionable salary. The employers pay additional contributions aimed at removing the deficit in the Scheme. These amounts are reviewed every three years and can go up or down, depending on the funding level of the Scheme and other economic and demographic circumstances.