Transferring Teachers' Pension to NHS Pension

disgruntle

I need some advice regarding my public sector pensions. I am 38 and have been working for the NHS for almost 1 year and paying into my NHS pension. Prior to this I worked as a teacher full time from 2005-2011 and part time from 2016-2017 (sporadically). I had a break from Summer 2011 to Summer 2016 when I didn't pay into a pension as I was working freelance and part time in charity jobs. I intend to continue working for the NHS for some time, probably the rest of my career. Should I transfer the teachers' pension to the NHS scheme? Can I do this? What would it mean for my final pension?

kidmugsy

What can you tell us? What is your scheme normal retirement age in each scheme? Do you expect promotions and salary rises in the NHS?

hyubh

disgruntle wrote: »

I need some advice regarding my public sector pensions. I am 38 and have been working for the NHS for almost 1 year and paying into my NHS pension. Prior to this I worked as a teacher full time from 2005-2011 and part time from 2016-2017 (sporadically).

Transferring between public sector schemes would be a so-called 'Club' transfer, and Club transfers need to be elected for within 12 months of joining the new scheme... so you've left this rather late.

In a nutshell, if the gap between scheme memberships is under 5 years, then any final salary service (so, pre-April 2015 TPS membership in your case) carries over as a final salary service credit in the new scheme (albeit subject to adjustments for different benefit structures). TPS to NHS you're fine, but the dates you've given for the earlier TPS to TPS make it unclear whether your 2005-11 service goes against your 2017 WTE pensionable pay or not.

If it does, then you need to consider whether your full-time equivalent pay on leaving the NHS will likely be higher than your final pensionable pay figure in the TPS, uprated for inflation.

If it does not, then transferring would be probably be marginally preferable because you would get active member revaluation on the currently-deferred TPS pension, which is higher than deferred member revaluation (i.e. the pension would increase slightly more each year while still a member of the NHS scheme - under Club rules, transferred-in CARE pension revalues like it revalues in the old scheme for active members).

PS - normal pension ages will only be a factor if you still have TPS benefits on a final salary basis. This is because the CARE one is the same in both schemes, but as a 2005 joiner, it would have been 60 in the TPS, at least originally. *If* that is the case and *if* you transferred, then it would come in as a NHS 2008 service credit, and get a NPA of 65 with a greater reckonable service length to make up for the fact.