We’ve taken on board feedback that the Sharesave invitation window usually opens during one of the busiest times of year for our colleagues. To improve engagement, we’ve decided to move the next Sharesave invitation to Spring 2026.

Once you’ve joined Sharesave you can’t increase or decrease your payments. However, you can leave the plan at any time, and you’ll always get back the money you put in.

You can miss up to 12 payments and still continue with your Sharesave plan. However, if you miss 13 payments, your savings contract will lapse and you’ll no longer be able to buy shares at the discounted share price. Your savings will be returned to you.

If you miss 12 or fewer payments, you still need to make the maximum number of payments and the date when you could buy shares (also known as the maturity date) will be delayed.

A Sharesave Payment Holiday Form can be found in the Documents section on oursainsburys.co.uk/shares. Colleagues can also obtain the form and further information by emailing shareholder.services@sainsburys.co.uk 

Don’t worry, you’ll always get back the money you put in. If you need to close your account at any time and for any reason, you can do so online by visiting oursainsburys.co.uk/shares. If you close your account before the completion of the Sharesave contract, you lose the opportunity to buy shares at the discounted share price.

For Sharesave 2023 and 2024, if you close your account during the first year, all your savings will be repaid without interest. For Sharesave 2023 and 2024, after the first year, and when Equiniti has successfully received 12 payments, you’ll receive interest on your savings. The level of interest to be paid on early withdrawals (the early leaver rate) is fixed by HMRC at the start of the savings contract. The early leaver rate for Sharesave 2023 is 1.42% and the rate for Sharesave 2024 is 1.17%. This will be tax-free. 

For all Sharesave plans prior to 2023, no interest will be paid.

Your current Sharesave savings are held by Equiniti (the previous share plans administrator). You can log on to https://www.esp-portal.com/clients/sainsburys to see your savings amounts and any pending payments. To log into to the Equiniti portal, you should select J Sainsbury plc as your place of work.

If you are paid every four weeks, there will be 13 deductions each year, but only 12 can be added to your Sharesave plan (one per month). Towards the end of your plan, you will have three pending deductions.

All instructions must be placed on the MUFG Share Plans Portal where you can also see your contribution amounts (excluding any pending payments). 

If you’re receiving enough pay to cover your chosen contribution, your payments will continue to be taken as normal.

If you’re worried that your pay will not cover your contributions or wish to stop your contributions, you’re able to miss up to 12 payments by completing the Sharesave Payment Holiday Form which can be found in the Documents section on oursainsburys.co.uk/shares and returning it to Operations.Payroll@sainsburys.co.uk. For every payment you miss, your maturity date will be delayed by one month. You can also choose to cancel your plan and take back your savings however, if you do this, you’ll no longer be able to buy shares at the discounted price.

If you don’t have enough pay to cover your contributions but still wish to make payments, you can make payments directly to Equiniti via standing order. To request a standing order form, please contact Equiniti on +44 (0)371 384 2040.

If you leave before the maturity date due to redundancy, retirement, TUPE transfer or through a capability dismissal following a period of long-term absence, you can:

•    use your savings at the point of leaving, plus any interest due, to buy shares at the discounted price;
•    add up to six further payments to your savings (depending on how many deductions have been taken from your pay and how many months into the savings contract you are at the point of leaving) then use your savings and bonus or interest due to buy shares at the discounted price; or
•    take your savings and any interest due at any time.

You’ll have six months from your leaving date to decide what to do and MUFG Corporate Markets will write to you to explain your choices.

If you leave before the maturity date for any other reason, you can either get your savings back with any interest due or continue saving and receive any bonus due. However, you’ll lose the right to buy shares at the discounted share price. 
If you leave after the maturity date, the usual maturity choices will apply.

Your savings, which are held with Lloyds Bank plc, are yours and are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS can pay compensation to depositors if a bank is unable to meet its financial obligations. In respect of deposits, an eligible depositor is entitled to claim up to £85,000. For further information about the scheme, refer to the FSCS website www.fscs.org.uk or call the FSCS on telephone number +44 20 7741 4100.

Please visit the Financial Wellbeing page on Our Sainsbury’s to learn more about financial wellbeing.

MiFID II is a financial regulation and has been designed to protect investors such as yourself, by introducing enhanced obligations for firms who provide investment services. Its aim is to increase customer protection and prevent market abuse.

As a result, we’ll have to provide additional information to regulatory bodies about certain transactions, and in order to do this, we may need to collect additional information about you. This mandatory information, which includes confirmation of your nationality or dual nationality and your national client identifier (NIC), such as your NI Number if you’re a UK resident, needs to be provided within the portal if you’re choosing to sell your shares. You’ll be prompted to complete the MiFID II section of the journey. If the mandatory information isn’t received, or is completed incorrectly, we’ll complete your exercise as if you’ve elected to keep all of your shares.

There is no impact on your plan and your contributions will continue to be deducted as normal, but you should check your payslip.

There is a fee of £15 per transaction, which is the same or lower than before.

Shortly before the end of the three years (around mid-February), you’ll receive information explaining the choices available to you and the action you need to take. You’ll then be able to buy shares at the discounted share price or have your savings returned to you. If you don’t make a decision within six months, all of your savings will be returned to you automatically.

We’ll be in touch when your Sharesave is due to mature detailing your options and how you can make your choice.

When you submit a sale instruction, your shares will be sold on your behalf. You’ll be asked to submit your bank account details via oursainsburys.co.uk/shares when you submit your instruction. Once the shares have been sold your sale proceeds will be sent directly to that bank account. More details will be made available at the time of the maturity. 

A £15 dealing fee is charged on the sale of your shares if you choose to buy and sell your shares. This will be deducted from the proceeds of your sale before you receive the funds. If you choose to buy and keep your shares and sell at a later date, different dealing fees will apply. Rates shown were current at the time of publication of this FAQ, however, these are subject to change. To ensure that you are aware of the current applicable rates prior to dealing, please ensure that you have read the latest Terms and Conditions which can be found in the Documents section on oursainsburys.co.uk/shares.

Under normal circumstances, you won’t have to pay income tax when you buy shares at the discounted share price. If you sell your shares and your profit means your total capital gains exceed the annual allowance, you may need to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT). The annual CGT allowance for the 2025/26 tax year is £3,000 (please visit www.gov.uk/tax-sell-shares for the most up to date CGT allowances as these may be subject to change). You should consult a qualified independent financial advisor if you would like advice on Capital Gains Tax, or tax more generally.

If you’ve received an email notification informing you that you’re unable to deal in Sainsbury’s shares, you must wait until you receive an email lifting this restriction before you buy, sell or transfer shares. You’re also unable to join a new Sharesave or cancel an existing plan if you’re restricted from dealing.

You can choose how to hold your shares at the point of exercise via oursainsburys.co.uk/shares. Your shares can be held electronically (in a Nominee account) or as a paper share certificate.

The MUFG Corporate Markets Corporate Sponsored Nominee (CSN) service is an online account that is set up to hold your shares electronically on your behalf. The MUFG Corporate Markets CSN allows you to hold your shares safely and securely without the need for paper certificates and gives you access to an online share dealing service, where you can sell your shares and receive the funds direct to your bank account. You’ll still receive your dividends in cash.

If you’d like to receive a paper certificate, you’ll need to select ‘All Shares’, ‘Keep All’ and then select ‘Send me a share certificate for my shares’. A share certificate will be sent to you by post to your registered address. Please note that your share certificate will be posted at your own risk.

If you plan to keep your shares electronically in a MUFG Corporate Markets CSN, you’ll need to arrange to open an account for your spouse/civil partner before you confirm your choice online to buy and keep your shares. The Spouse Nominee Form and Terms and Conditions are available in the Documents section on oursainsburys.co.uk/shares and will need to be completed and posted to the address on the form.

If your spouse/civil partner already has a MUFG Corporate Markets CSN, you'll need to provide their MUFG Corporate Markets CSN Investor Code under the 'Transfer Shares to spouse/civil partner' section within oursainsburys.co.uk/shares  when you make your election.

Alternatively, you can choose to receive your shares as a share certificate as well as transfer to your spouse / civil partner to a share certificate. You’ll need to follow the prompts on the transfer to spouse/ civil partner section when making your choice online and elect to receive the shares as a share certificate. If you wanted to then transfer to an ISA, please follow the steps below. A share certificate will be sent to you by post to your registered address. Please note that your share certificate will be posted at your own risk.

To transfer your shares into an ISA you’ll need to select ‘All Shares’, ‘Keep All’ and then select ‘Send me a share certificate’ for my shares. From there you have 90 days to transfer your shares to your preferred ISA provider. There is no fee to transfer your shares, complete the ‘Transfer Out – Form E’ and return to MUFG Corporate Markets. You’ll need to contact your ISA provider to request a transfer form to complete the transfer.  

If you’d like to transfer your shares into your own brokerage account, you will need to select ‘All Shares’, ‘Keep All’ and then select ‘Send me a share certificate’ for my shares. You’ll then need to speak to your broker to arrange for the shares to be transferred to your account. A share certificate will be sent to you by post to your registered address. Please note that your share certificate will be posted at your own risk.

If you decide to buy shares, there will usually be a very small amount of money left over (less than the discounted share price). This will be donated to Comic Relief on your behalf unless you select to have the money returned to you. If you do request to have the residue money returned to you, this will be paid to your bank account that you provided on oursainsburys.co.uk/shares and will be a separate payment to any sales proceeds if you requested to sell your shares.

If you’ve missed payments, deductions from your pay will continue until all payments have been made and the maturity date will be postponed by one month for each missed payment. Your maturity date and last exercise date can be found under the Plan Summary on oursainsburys.co.uk/shares and the’ Award’ section of your Sharesave tile in the App.

If you don't submit your choice on oursainsburys.co.uk/shares within six months of your maturity date, you'll no longer be able to buy shares at the discounted share price, and all your savings will automatically be returned to you by Equiniti via cheque.

If you choose to buy and sell your shares, your sale proceeds will be sent to the bank account that you submitted on oursainsburys.co.uk/shares when you made your instruction. It can take up to five days to reach your account once payment has been sent.

If you choose to buy and keep your shares, it will take four working days for the shares to be available in your CSN.

If you take back your savings, your savings will be returned within ten working days. You will receive your savings to the bank account that you submitted on oursainsburys.co.uk/shares when you made your instruction.

If the share price falls below the discounted share price, MUFG Corporate Markets will cancel the instruction and you will be able to place a new instruction.

As long as your instruction is received by 5pm UK time within the first four weeks of the maturity window, your shares will be sold the next working day. From week five of the maturity window shares will be sold in weekly batches. Your instruction will need to be received by 5pm on the Monday of each week to be sold the next working day.

However, if there’s a large volume of shares to sell the shares may be sold up to five working days after you provide your instruction. If this happens, the share price will be averaged so that everyone who has sold during that time will receive the same price.

You can find more information in the Share Sale Terms & Conditions in the Document section on oursainsburys.co.uk/shares.

No interest will be paid on Sharesave schemes from 2022 or earlier.

For Sharesave 2023 and 2024, if you close your account during the first year, all your savings will be repaid without interest. For Sharesave 2023 and 2024, after the first year, and when Equiniti has successfully received 12 payments, you will receive interest on your savings. The level of interest to be paid on early withdrawals (the early leaver rate) is fixed by HMRC at the start of the savings contract. The early leaver rate for Sharesave 2023 is 1.42% and for Sharesave 2024 the rate is 1.17%. This will be tax free.

No, you don’t. We all know that share prices can go down as well as up, so you can take back all of your savings as cash. We’ll inform you of all of your choices when you’ve finished saving.