Authorising Direct Debit payments to NEST

NEST offer various methods of paying pension contributions, including Direct Debit, Debit Card and Direct Credit (e.g. BACS). This article focusses on the process for authorising payment of pension contributions to NEST using a Direct Debit.

Unlike some Direct Debit arrangements, NEST's system requires each payment to be individually approved. This means that users of NEST need to send contribution data to NEST and (once the contribution data has been processed) complete a separate step to approve the payment. This can be done by uploading a payment CSV file, or by manually viewing the contribution schedule on the NEST website and clicking a button to approve the payment. 

Automatic NEST Direct Debit Approval via PensionSync

Users of PensionSync benefit from Automatic NEST Direct Debit Approval. This means that users can send the contribution data via PensionSync, and the payment will automatically be approved in time to collect before the Payment Due Date. 

FAQs

How does PensionSync know when to approve the payment?

PensionSync receives regular scheme information directly from Nest, including details of any contributions that are due to be paid and when the Payment Due Date is. If there are contributions due, PensionSync will automatically approve the payment as soon as the Payment Due Date is less than 6 working days in the future. 

Can I approve the payment manually if I prefer? 

Although most users do prefer to let PensionSync do the work on payment approvals, you can still choose to approve the payment manually if you want to. For example, if you want to pay the money to Nest at an earlier date than it would be automatically paid, you can simply log in to Nest and press the manual payment approval button. 

If you want to switch payment approval off for a particular Nest scheme you can do this by clicking the £ icon next to the scheme on the PensionSync Scheme Management Tool Active Schemes page and changing the setting to Disabled. You can switch it back on at any time.

How is PensionSync authorised to approve the payment? 

PensionSync needs authorisation from someone with Nest Full Access Delegate rights in order to approve payments, in the same way as it needs authorisation to send and receive pension data.

Authorisation is a one-time process, so all you need to do when you start using PensionSync is provide your username and password via our secure Authorisation Gateway (typically launched from your payroll software when you set the scheme up in payroll). PensionSync then securely stores the authorisation credentials so the it can communicate with Nest to send and receive data and approve payments. 

The only time you usually need to re-authorise is if your Nest account is locked or your password changes.