Local Government Pension Scheme

Our Frequently Asked Questions below will help you answer many of your common questions about the Local Government Pension Scheme.

|
  • Answer:

    As part of the rectification of the discrimination caused by Transitional Protection, we’ve identified members who hold an additional contract above a full-time teaching contract, which is known as excess service.

    This isn’t pensionable in the Teachers’ Pensions final salary scheme and therefore couldn’t be rolled back on 1 October 2023. However, where an employer had a relationship with the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), this excess service is pensionable in that scheme and in line with the Transitional Protection remedy will be moved into it.

    We’re working closely with employers to confirm that the service matches their records before it is moved to the LGPS funds.

    If you think the excess service is incorrect and have documentary evidence to support this, you’ll need to discuss this with the relevant employer(s) who you held contracts with during the remedy period (1 April 2015 – 31 March 2022).

  • Answer:

    As part of the rectification of Transitional Protection, we’ve identified members who hold additional excess service that couldn’t be rolled back into the default final salary scheme.

    We’ll be working closely with the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds and employers to verify whether this service meets the eligibility for inclusion within the LGPS and is pensionable within their scheme.

    Where service is eligible for inclusion in the LGPS, there’ll be appropriate actions taken to move service from our scheme to theirs. Any residual service will then be paid as compensation.

    Please see ’If I am eligible for excess service compensation, how will you make the payments?’ for more information.

  • Answer:

    If you’ve had excess service that has been moved to the LGPS, you can elect to transfer any LGPS service you may have into the Teachers’ Pension Scheme under our standard transfer rules. Please note, this would require you to transfer all LGPS service into the Teachers’ Pension Scheme and not just the element of excess service.

    The window to action this transfer will open from the date you receive your Remediable Service Statement and will remain open for one year.

    More information on transfers into the Teachers’ Pension Scheme can be found on our website.

    Please note: Transfers aren’t available to those of you who’ve taken your retirement benefits from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme before a transfer is complete.

  • Answer:

    There are a number of reasons why you might not have received your payment.

    These include:

    • You haven’t provided your bank details or they’re no longer valid
    • One or more of your employers hasn’t provided the relevant information needed
    • Your Local Government Pension Fund (LGPS) hasn’t confirmed the contributions they require.
    • Whilst your service was moved to LGPS, there was no additional ‘excess service’ to refund.

  • Answer:

    As part of the Transitional Protection changes, you may be eligible to an element of residual compensation because of excess service contributions over and above those that will be moved to the Local Government Pension Scheme.

    If so, we’ll check to see if you’re already receiving other payments from the Scheme and whether we already hold your bank details.

    If we do, any payments will be sent to the account details we hold and we’ll issue you with a letter so you know the payment is on its way.

    If we don’t, we’ll issue you with a secure link to provide bank details. Once your details are received and verified and the calculations of your compensation has been completed, we’ll issue you with a letter, so you know the payment is on its way.

    Please note: While there is eligibility for members to receive compensation as part of the excess service process, this isn’t guaranteed.

  • Answer:

    If you:

    - are affected by Transitional Protection,

    - have already retired (either fully or partially), and

    - have been identified as having excess service for an employer that has a relationship with the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)

    Then you’ll only be affected by this change if:

    1. you choose final salary benefits for the remedy period (1 April 2015 – 31 March 2022), after receiving your remediable service statement, or
    2. the default option is applied as you haven’t responded within the election period, and final salary benefits would be more beneficial.

    Service won’t be rolled back unless either of these apply. If they don’t apply, your excess service will remain in the career average scheme.

  • Answer:

    We’re aiming to contact affected employers between January and July 2024. A timeline by region can be viewed on our website.

    Employers will need to check that the correct service is identified to be moved before arranging with their Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) to move contributions. We’ll contact you to confirm when your eligible service has been moved to the LGPS.

    Only once the LGPS fund has requested the contributions from Teachers Pensions and any compensation calculation completed, will any payment be issued to you.

    If we don’t hold your bank details, we’ll request these details from you once we’ve had confirmation of your excess service from your employer.

    If we already hold your bank details, we’ll contact you once any compensation calculations have been completed to let you know what the payment will be and when it will be issued. (For further information, please see ’If I am eligible for excess service compensation, how will you make the payments?’)

  • Answer:

    We’ve identified those members who are affected and will be contacting you directly.

    If you think you may be affected and don’t receive any communication from us or your employer, get in touch with the relevant employer(s) who you held contracts with during the remedy period (1 April 2015 – 31 March 2022). See ’When will I be contacted?’ for further information.

  • Answer:

    As part of the rectification of the discrimination caused by Transitional Protection, we’ve identified members who, during the remedy period (1 April 2015 – 31 March 2022), hold an additional contract above a full-time contract, which is known as excess service.

    This isn’t pensionable in the Teachers’ Pensions final salary scheme and couldn’t be rolled back on 1 October 2023. However, where an employer had a relationship with the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), this excess service is pensionable in that scheme and in line with the Transitional Protection remedy will be moved into it.

    You’ve been identified as having excess service during the remedy period and your employer had a link to the LGPS fund during this time. We’re working with employer and the LGPS funds to ensure that your service is moved to the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Forms

Ready to apply? Our forms page has everything you'll need to get started.

Forms

Calculators

Get an insight into how your pension is built and explore your options.

Calculators

FAQ's

Find the answers with our range of Frequently Asked Questions.

FAQs