Answer:

If you hadn’t retired by 1 October 2023 and are affected by Transitional Protection, your affected service has been rolled back from the career average scheme to the final salary scheme and your Benefit Statement has been updated to reflect this.

We’re working hard to show both options and will keep you updated on when this has changed. While it only shows your final salary option for the remedy period. you’ll be given both options when you make your retirement application.

Answer:

If you’re affected by Transitional Protection, from 1 October 2023 your affected service has been rolled back from the career average scheme to the final salary scheme and your Benefit Statement has been updated to reflect this.

Although your current statement only shows the final salary option for the remedy period (1 April 2015 -31 March 2022), you’ll be given both options when you make your retirement application.

We’re working hard to show both options and will keep you updated on when this has changed.

Answer:

It's important that you check your service history to ensure the correct details are held as this is what we base your pension benefits on. Any errors not identified now may result in delays when calculating your pension benefits, or result in an incorrect pension amount being paid. If you identify any errors or omissions please contact the employer at the time of service, ask them to investigate and, where necessary, inform Teachers' Pensions about any changes. We will then update your record accordingly.

Answer:

If your employer has included excluded days in their record of your service and salary, this will be mirrored on your Benefit Statement. Days excluded (i.e. (not worked and not counting towards reckonable service in the final salary scheme) are used when deciding the actual reckonable service and salary rate for the period that counts towards your final salary benefits, or for career average benefits to decide the actual pensionable earnings in the time period. But if you’re part-time we ask your employer to provide your actual part-time pensionable earnings and, although we will still derive the number of days excluded in the period, it’s the actual reported pensionable earnings that will be used to determine your pension benefits.

Answer:

The new Benefit Statement allows you to view the individual service lines which make up the multiple/concurrent service.

Answer:

If there are gaps in the service on your Benefit Statement and you’re sure that you contributed to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme during that period you have what we call missing service (usually this doesn’t mean that you or your employer have missed any contribution payments, but that your record needs updating).

Missing service can be easily resolved. If you’re affected, please contact your employer at the time in question and ask them to provide us with the details we’re missing. The information will be  changed on our system and you’ll be able to view the updated Benefit Statement online through My Pension Online. 

Answer:

Missing service means you’ve been making contributions to your teacher’s pension, but this isn’t shown in your Benefit Statement/Service history.

When there’s missing service on your record this doesn’t necessarily mean that you or your employer have missed any contribution payments. It’s usually caused by details not being provided correctly to us, which results in a gap in service record. 

It’s important to ask your employer to update any missing service. This is because we use your service information to calculate your retirement benefits. Any errors or missing service found during the application process could delay your retirement benefits being paid.

You’ll need to speak to the relevant employer for that service period and ask them to update your record accordingly. This will then be reflected on your service history and Benefit Statement. 

For more information about what to do when you have missing service, including what to do if your employer no longer holds your records or no longer exists, please see our FAQS.

Answer:

Unfortunately, we can’t make any amendments to your service record, this must be done by the relevant employer. If the employer no longer holds your data, you’ll need to provide evidence to them and it’s  their responsibility to re-construct your service record and  submit it to us. We can then ensure your record is updated.

If you need to provide evidence, you should be able to use your payslips for the relevant period as these contain evidence of your pension contributions. You may also be able to use any relevant P60’s or data from HMRC.

Should you no longer have the relevant payslips you’ll need to contact the National Insurance office for an NIRS2 print which details all your earnings and pension contributions including our unique ECON and SCON numbers, which indicate that you were contributing to our Scheme. Please note that a SARS print isn’t sufficient evidence of contributions to our Scheme. This only provides evidence of National Insurance contributions and aren’t relevant to your teacher’s pension. Although this will show your employer for the time in question, it’s not proof of contributions into our Scheme, though it may be used to show that you were paying the lower rate of National Insurance, D-rate, as you were contracted out of the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS). 

Answer:

If the employer no longer exists, you’ll need to contact us with the evidence of your contributions (this information can be found in the FAQ above). We’ll then do our best to re-construct your service record from the evidence provided.