Last year, the Teachers’ Pension Scheme rules were found to be discriminatory on the grounds of sexual orientation towards female members in an opposite-sex marriage or civil partnership. Therefore, Scheme rules have been changed to provide female members in an opposite-sex marriage or civil partnership with the same survivor pension rights as all other members who are in a marriage or civil partnership.

Survivor benefits will now be calculated using service from 1 April 1972, or 6 April 1978 if the marriage or civil partnership took place after the last day of pensionable service. This will apply for deaths in respect of female members which occurred from 5 December 2005, the date that same-sex civil partnerships were introduced.

From April 2021 we began recalculating payments to survivors who are receiving pension payments, starting from the oldest cases first, and this will be completed by June 2023. In August 2021 we also began refunding female members who made a family benefit election and paid additional contributions for service from 1 April 1972 –5 April 1988, and this will be completed by July 2022.

Where possible, we’ve identified those affected and we’re contacting you with more detailed information via either email, secure My Pension Online messages or letter. This started on 20 October 2021. If you haven’t heard from us yet, don’t worry it’ll take approximately 12 months to complete this exercise.

If you haven’t retired yet, the change will be reflected on your Benefit Statement which is available via My Pension Online. If you’ve already retired, you can use our new online decision tree tool, which provides examples of how people will be affected and our excel calculator which will give an idea of what your new entitlement will be.