If you are a Teachers’ Pensions member affected by the Transitional Protection Remedy, you will be contacted by Teachers’ Pensions about what will be happening once the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (Remediable Service) Regulations 2023 have been enacted on 1 October 2023.

Transitional Protection allowed older members who were within 10 years of their normal retirement age to remain in their Teachers’ Pensions final salary schemes, while other younger members moved to the new Career Average Revalued Earnings (Career Average) scheme in, or after, April 2015. This approach has since been found discriminatory on age grounds and a remedy has been agreed. The remedy period is from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022.

Members who have not retired (active or deferred members)

If you’ve not yet retired by 1 October 2023, you will be able to view your updated benefit statement in ‘My pension online’ on the Teachers’ Pensions website to reflect:

• All your pensionable service accrued during the remedy period rolled back into the final salary scheme, which means your benefits in the final salary scheme will increase and can be taken from either normal pension age 60 (Final Salary 80th scheme) or normal pension age 65 (final salary 60th scheme)
• Any accrued benefits in the Career Average scheme will be reduced as members would have moved to Career Average scheme from 1 April 2022 when the final salary schemes closed.

Teachers’ Pensions will be contacting those members who were in the Career Average scheme during the remedy period separately, where action will be required because of this rollback. Your Benefit Statement will also include additional information relating to the Transitional Protection Remedy to help you understand the options available to you when you retire. You may wish to take a copy of your current statement now for your records.

You will be given options and need to make a decision if:

• you enhanced your Career Average pension by buying additional pension, faster accrual and buy-out
• you worked excess service or overtime, ie Excess Teacher Service
• you were liable for any tax because of exceeding the annual allowance.

For those of you who joined the Career Average scheme for the first time (as a result of the service rolling back) there are more options open to you as a new entrant that have deadlines for any action to be taken:

• Transfer service from another pension scheme into TPS – if you wish to make a transfer, your transfer must be complete by 30 September 2024
• You can make an election to buy out the actuarial reduction between 65 and 68 years old – you have six months from entering the Career Average scheme to elect for this option. If you’re eligible and wish to apply for Buy Out, you must apply by 31 March 2024. 

Then when you wish to take your benefits at retirement, there will be a two-stage process:

1. Apply for your benefits to be paid by contacting Teachers’ Pensions and filling in the appropriate forms online
2. Teachers’ Pensions will then contact you setting out the two calculations and you will get to choose whether you wish for your remedy period service to remain as final salary or alternatively be calculated as if the service had been in the Career Average scheme for the remedy period. This is known as Deferred Choice Underpin (DCU).  

Your benefits will not be paid until you have notified them of your option.

Members who have already taken their benefits (retired members)

The situations vary whether you are a member yet to take your benefits versus those who have already done so. The latter must make an Immediate Choice (IC). 

As a retired member, you do not have to take any immediate action.  

You won’t see any immediate changes following rollback, and your benefits won’t be adjusted until you’ve received your Remediable Service Statement (RSS) and confirmed your choice for your remedy period service. 

The RSS will set out the alternative final salary and career average benefits for the remedy period, in order for you to make an Immediate Choice.

You will also be given options and need to make a decision if you purchased career average flexibilities (Faster Accrual, Buy Out or career average scheme Additional Pension) during the remedy period.

Teachers’ Pensions will contact you regarding your options and the choices you need to make.

It will then provide you with an RSS for you to make your decision on remedy period service.

If you have already retired, your benefits won’t be adjusted until you have received your RSS and confirmed your choice.

All members must be provided an RSS within 18 months.

These changes won’t impact all members and not all periods of service. It’s important to understand if the changes will affect you. You can visit the Teachers’ Pensions website and go to the Decision Tree to see if you are eligible and affected by the Transitional Protection Remedy or by clicking on the Transitional Protection banner in your ‘My pension online’ account for further information. If you have not got a ‘My pension online’ account, you can register by clicking here.

NAHT cannot provide financial advice in relation to your pension, it is legally precluded from doing this. This means that if you’re unsure about how you would like to take your benefit from the TPS then you may wish to consider contacting a financial advisor.

Teachers’ Pensions has issued factsheets with further information on its website – find out more.