Change of role

Surflife

Good evening,
I’ve been teaching for 20 years and have recently left my role as a headteacher and moved into a education advice support role. As a result I am no longer eligiable to contribute to the teachers’ Pension Scheme.

I have currently chose not to contribute to my new employers pension scheme as I feel at 48 , I would be potentially locking in any money I invest and won’t be able to access it until long after I can access my teachers pension. Instead I have chosen to invest my previous pension contributions (around £600 per month) into an ISA account instead.

Is this the right thing to do or would anyone advise me to invest in the company pension instead?

The company scheme is organised through Now Pensions.

Thanks in advance!

xylophone

I have currently chose not to contribute to my new employers pension scheme as I feel at 48 , I would be potentially locking in any money I invest and won’t be able to access it until long after I can access my teachers pension

You are actually turning down your employer's contribution and tax relief?

Why would you do this?

And presumably the earliest you could access your TPS pension without actuarial reduction would be 60?

The NOW pension is a DC pension and potentially accessible from (at the moment) age 55?

And if you mean that you would be working for this employer until you were 65+ you would have already accessed your TPS and could wait to access NOW?

And have you obtained a state pension forecast?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Albermarle

I

s this the right thing to do or would anyone advise me to invest in the company pension instead?

If you change the word 'anyone' to ' almost everybody' then that would sum up the advice you will get on this forum ( presuming that your employer is also contributing to this pension )

dmelife

Oops.....best get yourself back in the pension scheme

Surflife

Ok. Thanks for the input and message received!

What about Now Pensions though, the reviews aren’t great and there are some poor reports on these forums?

Thanks

Stubod

Surflife wrote: »

Good evening,
....I have currently chose not to contribute to my new employers pension scheme......

Thanks in advance!

...@#?! ....what, giving up free money and the tax benefits!? .[STRIKE]are you mad[/STRIKE]?..... seems a bit silly to me?

Highlanddream

Depends on how much you already have in your pension fund? I wouldn't add either.

Surflife

You wouldn’t add into the Now Pension?

sandsy

Are you a 40% taxpayer by any chance? Pension, pension, pension.

xylophone

What about Now Pensions though, the reviews aren’t great and there are some poor reports on these forums?

Even if they aren't great, it is still a pension, you still get an employer's contribution and you still get tax relief.

If you leave this employer, you will be able to transfer out to another scheme if you wish.

Have you looked at this?

https://www.nowpensions.com/member-homepage/

You will notice that the management is changing.

You can increase your contributions to NOW above the mandatory contribution.

https://www.nowpensions.com/help-centre/faqs/contributions/can-an-employee-pay-more-in-to-the-pension-pot-than-the-employer

https://www.nowpensions.com/help-centre/faqs/pension-management/whats-the-difference-between-net-pay-and-relief-at-source

AnotherJoe

Surflife wrote: »

Ok. Thanks for the input and message received!

What about Now Pensions though, the reviews aren’t great and there are some poor reports on these forums?

Thanks

They still will be better than an ISA once you factor in free money and tax relief. By a long way.
A very very long way.
And, Now may get better over time, and you may even be able to transfer your money out every now and again into a better scheme whilst still getting the benefits of the employer and tax relief. EG lets say for sake of argument every time theres £10k in there you xfer it elsewhere (bearing in mind you likely only put £5k in there to get that £10k)

But thats secondary. Free money is always better than no free money.