Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVC) plans were popular in the 1980s and 1990s as a way for employees to increase their pension invstments.

AVCs are structured like personal pensions in that they are money purchase schemes and can either be invested with the company pension provider (where they are known as 'in-scheme AVCs') or with a different pension company (Free Standing AVCs - FSAVCs)

These have become irrelevant since the pension changes. New pension rules mean that you can save up to the higher of £3,600 a year or 100 per cent of your UK earnings into a private pension or a mixture of private pensions – employer’s, personal or stakeholder pension.