Teachers pension advice please

1981trouble

I joined tps in 2005 and am in the old scheme. I paid in to it until feb 2013 and I was unemployed.

New job not teaching which doesn't pay into tps. (Not paying any pension there just yet as I wasn't sure what my Long term plan is).

I also do casual hours in the local college which does pay tps.


But I am worried I might be affectjng my average pay by paying in or is it best to just pay in as much a possible?

Basically, I am paying in a percentage of each month I earn so for say 6 months every year I pay in 5% -earning 5-6k as my earnings for the 6months of this job as opposed to 15-25k per year from 05-13.

So am I better to pay into it as much as possible and they work out amount of days/months worked and the amount earnt over that time (my daily/hourly rate is equiv to teaching so that would be ok I think ) or do they work it on yearly amount earnt in which case I am making my career average a Rubbish wage by having low hours,

Sorry, if this makes no sense, I am confused myself trying to work out how to explain it.
I am a bit clueless about my pension and what i should be doing - everyone said I should join tps so I did but never understood how it all worked.

jem16

1981trouble wrote: »

So am I better to pay into it as much as possible and they work out amount of days/months worked and the amount earnt over that time (my daily/hourly rate is equiv to teaching so that would be ok I think ) or do they work it on yearly amount earnt in which case I am making my career average a Rubbish wage by having low hours,

At the moment the Teachers' Pension Scheme is a final salary scheme and not a career average scheme. Your pension is worked out on your final salary and the number of years in the pension scheme. So basically if you worked for 40 years you would build up a pension based on your final salary of 40/80ths - in other words half.

By working part-time you are building up less service but it will still all count in the end. Your final salary is always taken as the full-time equivalent.

In other word if you were to build up 20 full-time years and 20 part-time years of 1/2 a year you would end up with 30 years service as opposed to 40 years service.

So yes it is a good idea to continue paying in even though you are only working part-time.

1981trouble

Thank you that makes sense. I really should read up properly on what we are paying into, I just get confused by the whole thing (I'm normally quite astute so this stresses me even more)

Realistically, I know it will be career average by the time I retire as there's only so many times we can fight changes before they win (have 30+years left yet) so I'm trying to protect myself from both sides.

chucknorris

1981trouble wrote: »

I also do casual hours in the local college which does pay tps.

How does that work? The reason I ask is that I am currently working as a lecturer and the university is resisting a request to cut my hours, I'm currently 80% fractional and would like to move to 40%. If I retired early in a few years I would be interested in working casual hours, do you mean as a visiting lecturer?

Does the pay for that include pension, if it did perhaps it would also allow me to buy additional pension too, although that would open up another can of worms concerning tax relief on none employment earnings, but that is a question for another day.

eym

jem16 wrote: »

By working part-time you are building up less service but it will still all count in the end. Your final salary is always taken as the full-time equivalent.

In other word if you were to build up 20 full-time years and 20 part-time years of 1/2 a year you would end up with 30 years service as opposed to 40 years service.

Just to make the above clear. As far as I understand it you are not building up less service by working part time. I work part time and working part time for a year still counts as a full years service in the TPS, although obviously at a lower part time salary.

If you only work 6 months of the year, then this will of course mean you've only completed half a years service.

Final pension is worked out at either your last year's service or the average of the best three consecutive years in the last 10 years of membership, so you don't need to worry about your part time hours counting as your final salary just yet.

hyubh

eym wrote: »

As far as I understand it you are not building up less service by working part time. I work part time and working part time for a year still counts as a full years service in the TPS, although obviously at a lower part time salary.

No, it's the other way round: for a part timer, pay is counted as whole-time equivalent, and calendar service pro-rated.

Final pension is worked out at either your last year's service or the average of the best three consecutive years in the last 10 years of membership, so you don't need to worry about your part time hours counting as your final salary just yet.

Part time working is entirely irrelevant given how 'final pay' is calculated.

jem16

eym wrote: »

Just to make the above clear. As far as I understand it you are not building up less service by working part time. I work part time and working part time for a year still counts as a full years service in the TPS, although obviously at a lower part time salary.

I'm afraid you understand it wrongly. If you work part-time you would not build up a whole year of service. If, for example, you work a 0.5 teaching post, at the end of one year you will have built up half a year of pensionable service.

When it comes to calculating your pension the full-time equivalent salary is used.

Final pension is worked out at either your last year's service or the average of the best three consecutive years in the last 10 years of membership, so you don't need to worry about your part time hours counting as your final salary just yet.

It never will count as your final salary as it's always the full-time equivalent that's used.

Have a look at the FAQs - it's all detailed there.

From TPS website https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/members/faqs/new-and-active-teachers/pensions-benefits.aspx

If you’re a part-time teacher, your pension scheme treats you in the same way as a full-time member.
You accrue additional Reckonable Service (proportionately) to be used in the calculation of benefits, including any potential children’s, partner’s or spouse’s short and long-term pensions.
All your periods of reckonable service, both full and part-time, are added together when calculating if any benefits are due.
If you die in service, a death grant of three times the average salary is payable – unless your employment is deemed to be an irregular post. That’s the same as a full-time member.
We class irregular part-time as a contract where you work odd days rather than set part-time hours.
When calculating your average salary, we use full-time equivalent salary rates.

And also this section specifically for part-time workers.

https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/members/the-scheme/active-teacher/part-timer.aspx

eym

Sorry, really should have checked that before posting. Or should have been more aware of how my pension is calculated!

1981trouble

eym wrote: »

Sorry, really should have checked that before posting. Or should have been more aware of how my pension is calculated!

Welcome to my world!

1981trouble

chucknorris wrote: »

How does that work? The reason I ask is that I am currently working as a lecturer and the university is resisting a request to cut my hours, I'm currently 80% fractional and would like to move to 40%. If I retired early in a few years I would be interested in working casual hours, do you mean as a visiting lecturer?

Does the pay for that include pension, if it did perhaps it would also allow me to buy additional pension too, although that would open up another can of worms concerning tax relief on none employment earnings, but that is a question for another day.

I am employed as a sessional lecturer on a permanent zero hours contract. I am paid iro £25 ph for each hour I actually teach (but no planning time etc).
They ring me and say can you do friday mornings for 6 weeks and I say yes or no and if I can do it then I am paid for those hours.
No security to the hours but invariably you will have set hours for weeks/months/full year unless staffing changes in the department. Most departments have a few casual staff because the teaching requirements change each year depending on enrolments/funding/management hairbrained ideas so it is their way of being flexible.

I opt into the TPS and they and me pay in each month. You get full staff benefits (childcare vouchers, transport allowances etc) as you are a permanent member of staff just have less security on your hours and obv only get paid in term time (hence me saying I work 6mths a year as more than likely won't have pay in Dec, April, June-Sept because of the demands of the subjects.)