A money-purchase scheme designed to provide retirement benefits, mainly for employees or the self-employed. Until 1 October 2012, a UK employer employing five or more employees was required to designate a stakeholder pension plan for its employees if the employer did not provide an occupational pension scheme for its employees or contribute at least 3% of earnings to a group personal pension plan. The employer had to make arrangements for employees’ contributions to be deducted from their pay and remitted to the stakeholder scheme provider, but was not obliged to make contributions to the scheme itself. The requirement to designate a stakeholder scheme was repealed with effect from 1 October 2012 and is being superseded by new duties on UK employers to automatically enrol eligible workers in an automatic enrolment scheme.