Teaching Pension- Moving Council Employer

turbadiesel

Hi,

This is my first post on mse forums. I have a question, hope you can help me. My wife has worked for two different councils as a teacher and we are hoping to move soon, she has made superannuation contributions with both councils. We are looking at moving in the near future and she will be looking for work in the council we move to. What happens to her pension pot? Will it just stay as a Local Govt Pension Scheme and is this linked to her national insurance number or does she have to do anything? Might sound like a silly question! But I have been trying to find out information but can't find anything...

Obviously if it was private sector she could start a new pension or transfer her pension pot into a new scheme.

missbiggles1

Are you sure her pensions are with the LGPS and not the TPS?

hyubh

turbadiesel wrote: »

My wife has worked for two different councils as a teacher and we are hoping to move soon, she has made superannuation contributions with both councils. We are looking at moving in the near future and she will be looking for work in the council we move to. What happens to her pension pot?

Assuming she was a member for long enough (two years currently), she will have a set of defined benefits in the scheme on leaving that will increase by CPI each year until she draws the pension (this is a bit different to a 'pot' in a DC - defined contribution - pension). On rejoining with her new employer these deferred benefits would then either be cancelled and the old membership joined with her active service instead, or (if LGPS not TPS - see below) she would have the option of keeping her deferred benefits deferred and starting a new pension account afresh.

Will it just stay as a Local Govt Pension Scheme

Teachers join the Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS), support staff (including teaching assistants) the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) - the rules of the latter are such that if someone is eligible for the TPS, they are ineligible for the LGPS, though in practice the divide can be a bit grey for certain people.

That said, from an employee (though not employer) point of view the schemes are quite similar, albeit slightly less so since they both changed from a 'final salary' to a 'career average' basis (the English and Welsh LGPS in 2014, the TPS in 2015). Also, in the LGPS, job changers have the decision of whether to combine their memberships or keep the older one(s) separate, however that question also arises for someone moving between the LGPS and TPS (or vice versa, which is less common).

and is this linked to her national insurance number

Only to the extent every pension is.

Might sound like a silly question! But I have been trying to find out information but can't find anything...

Clarify what the scheme actually is in the first instance, and if it's LGPS, the fund (i.e., which county/London borough). The TPS has a big website (http://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/), and all but the smallest LGPS fund will usually have a decent enough web presence too (e.g. http://www.essexpensionfund.co.uk/, http://www3.hants.gov.uk/pensions/lgps/, https://www.sypensions.org.uk/, etc.)

Obviously if it was private sector she could start a new pension or transfer her pension pot into a new scheme.

No different in broad terms, though if she has TPS membership she would not be able to transfer out to a non-public sector scheme in the future.

turbadiesel

This might sound stupid, but I don't actually know... I can see that she has superannuation contributions on her payslip from the two different councils (we live in scotland) I don't know a huge amount about pensions. I have a private pension with my employer which is simple to manage and i can adjust contributions etc easily. Just trying to keep on top of pension stuff and organise things

missbiggles1

turbadiesel wrote: »

This might sound stupid, but I don't actually know... I can see that she has superannuation contributions on her payslip from the two different councils (we live in scotland) I don't know a huge amount about pensions. I have a private pension with my employer which is simple to manage and i can adjust contributions etc easily. Just trying to keep on top of pension stuff and organise things

Was she working as a teacher or as a teaching assistant?

xylophone

http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/PayPensionsandConditions/Scotland/Pensions/

might help.

Does she receive an annual pension statement? Surely this shows the name of the scheme to which she belongs?

hyubh

turbadiesel wrote: »

This might sound stupid, but I don't actually know... I can see that she has superannuation contributions on her payslip from the two different councils (we live in Scotland

OK, the TPS will then just be administered by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) rather than Teachers Pensions (TP), and the LGPS will still be administered at the county/regional level like in England:

http://www.sppa.gov.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63&Itemid=5
http://www.highlandpensionfund.org/, http://www.lpf.org.uk/lpf1/site/index.php (etc.)

Like in England, being employed by a council and having pension contributions shown on a payslip doesn't say anything about what scheme she is in. However, as the others have said, she will have received at least one annual statement from the scheme, and if it is LGPS, a number of such statements (LGPS funds have had to issue them for over a decade now, both for active and deferred members).

I have a private pension with my employer which is simple to manage and i can adjust contributions etc easily.

A DB pension with the TPS or LGPS is actually easier to manage because there is nothing for the individual member to manage, in general. If your wife is interested in contributing more, she can an investigate buying additional DB pension, or contributing to a sort-of linked DC AVC, or starting a personal pension independently - both the TPS and LGPS have additional DB pension and in-house AVC options.

turbadiesel

Okay, here is what I've found out. Pension contributions go to the Scottish teacher superannuation scheme (STSS) administered by the Scottish public pension agency (SPPA). My question , would it be advisable to transfer the contributions into the English Teacher a Pension Scheme (TPS) which is administered by TP. And would this be relatively straightforward to do?

Thanks for your help.

jem16

turbadiesel wrote: »

My question , would it be advisable to transfer the contributions into the English Teacher a Pension Scheme (TPS) which is administered by TP. And would this be relatively straightforward to do?

Are you moving to England and will your wife be working in an English school? If she's staying in Scotland she can't move it to the English scheme and why would she want to anyway?

As to her pension pot with the STSS, it's all collected in the same place - the SPPA - no matter which council she works for in Scotland. If she moves to another Scottish council it will just continue as normal. If she moves outwith Scotland she can simply leave it where it is or transfer it. If she leaves it where it is she claims it on the NRD for the scheme - 60 or 65 depending on when she joined.