Pensions

moonpig223

Hi

I was a teacher for 5 years paying into the Teachers pension scheme but last year I left full time teaching and I am now working for 3 supply agencies, are the supply agencies now able to offer me a pension to pay into or will it be my responsibility to find a good one?

If so, can anyone recommend me a good pension scheme to pay into, as I am unable to pay into my Teacher's pension scheme as I no longer work for the local authority?

I also in the past worked for the local government and had a pension scheme through them but when I was made redundant from the position my pension was stopped then, do you know if I can opt back in and just pay my part of the pension and not ask the employer to pay in to?

Many thanks

rabbitmumu

Q1 - you should ask your agency

Q2 - there is no such thing called a good pension scheme. if it's a private one i.e. one of the big insurance companies, then you will need to do your homework, or pay an IFA to do your homework for you.

Q3 - No

The only suggestion (not advice) i would say is - if you decided to have a defined contribution pension with an insurance company (i.e. you contribution £x amount per month and depending on investment growth and annuity rate at retirement, you will get back £y which is unknown until retirement), they may ask you if you want to transfer your Teachers pension scheme/ Local government pension scheme into your new private personal pension...... if that happens, THINK TWICE.

Note that your teachers scheme/ LGPS are almost "guaranteed" and should be increasing until you retire (i.e. even you are no longer paying into it, the pot of fund will still grow at the "guaranteed" rate... "guaranteed" in here means it will be linked to some kind of inflation index to protect your pension being eroded from inflation).

Whereas your (new) personal pension will not have that kind of guarantee. So think twice if you are being asked.

atush

If you work for the new company, they should supply you with a new pension. If you are considered self employed, you will have to arrange your own.

As a teacher, being employed is besyt, and being employed (even part time) is better than agency as a final (or average) salary oension is the best you can get.

contact the local authority you used to work for, and you can give them your current address and details so you can keep up with that FS pension as well as your teacher's ones. those 2 will (even if short in years) give you the main part for your pension when you retire (unless you go back into the public sector at some point.

And don't think twice about transferring either into a your new scheme when you get one, think 100 times. As it will most likely be a bad idea and near impossible.

xylophone

http://www.glosnut.co.uk/docs/supplypensions.pdf
"It is not normally possible to contribute to the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme while employed by a supply
agency although some agencies are administered by LEA’s e.g. “Go Teaching” **, and it is possible to pay
pension contributions in these circumstances.
** A leaflet about “Go Teaching” is available from the NUT Regional Office."

Find out about pensions auto enrolment and your agencies.

If you need to start a private pension of your own this might be a start to your research.

You will leave your existing pension as deferred within the TPS
- youd need an IFA to sign off any transfer and in view of the excellence of the scheme. you'd be hard put to find one who'd do it.