Teachers' Pension transfer to SPPA (Scottish system)

diamond1984

Hello,
I recently moved to Scotland and have started working in a college here. The pension system here (SPPA) seems very similar to the Teachers' Pension run in England. Can anyone advise on whether I should transfer my pension from England (about 10 years worth) to the SPPA scheme or should I keep them both separate? I would rather have my pension pot in one place but can keep it separate if financially better.
Many thanks

Marcon

diamond1984 said:

Hello,
I recently moved to Scotland and have started working in a college here. The pension system here (SPPA) seems very similar to the Teachers' Pension run in England. Can anyone advise on whether I should transfer my pension from England (about 10 years worth) to the SPPA scheme or should I keep them both separate? I would rather have my pension pot in one place but can keep it separate if financially better.
Many thanks

Nobody here can advise, not least because there are no relevant facts in your question - it isn't a simple yes/no, but that weary old chestnut 'it depends...'.

 Your starting point is to ask your new scheme what a transfer from the TPS in England would 'buy' if you transferred it.

OldBeanz

diamond1984 said:

Hello,
I recently moved to Scotland and have started working in a college here. The pension system here (SPPA) seems very similar to the Teachers' Pension run in England. Can anyone advise on whether I should transfer my pension from England (about 10 years worth) to the SPPA scheme or should I keep them both separate? I would rather have my pension pot in one place but can keep it separate if financially better.
Many thanks

Likely to be better but as Macron says you need to get the ball rolling as there is normally a time limit. Obtain that quote and come back here with the numbers and someone will help.

hyubh

diamond1984 said:

Hello,
I recently moved to Scotland and have started working in a college here. The pension system here (SPPA) seems very similar to the Teachers' Pension run in England. Can anyone advise on whether I should transfer my pension from England (about 10 years worth) to the SPPA scheme or should I keep them both separate? I would rather have my pension pot in one place but can keep it separate if financially better.

Transfers between different home nation teachers schemes are now done under the Public Sector Transfer Club. One thing this brings is the requirement to sort out transferring (if you want to) within 12 months of joining the new employer (although this is a two-stage process: get an estimate, then decide to proceed or not). Another aspect is a conversion of benefits rather than simple like-for-like (so pay careful attention to things like normal pension ages for different tranches of pension).

However, this conversion is still under preferential terms. Assuming the gap between old and new schemes is less than 5 years, a final salary link would be reactivated for final salary service (= generally beneficial if you haven't stepped down a grade), and in addition, any McCloud malarky you would have benefited from had you stayed in the old scheme applies to the new (caveat: your 'about 10 years worth' phrasing makes it a bit ambiguous whether McCloud hits or not: https://pensions.gov.scot/2015-remedy).

Prudent

You might also want to consider the implications of Scotland potentially becoming independent. If you want to move back to England after that point could you still transfer the pension back in the same way? Might your pension be worth less or more in future if the value of Scottish currency does not move in line with English currency? 

diamond1984

OldBeanz said:

diamond1984 said:

Hello,
I recently moved to Scotland and have started working in a college here. The pension system here (SPPA) seems very similar to the Teachers' Pension run in England. Can anyone advise on whether I should transfer my pension from England (about 10 years worth) to the SPPA scheme or should I keep them both separate? I would rather have my pension pot in one place but can keep it separate if financially better.
Many thanks

Likely to be better but as Macron says you need to get the ball rolling as there is normally a time limit. Obtain that quote and come back here with the numbers and someone will help.

Hi, many thanks. I have received a quote from TP. They would keep my original 4 years of the old scheme (final salary) and then 6 years of the new CARE scheme. What parts of the statement should I look at specifically? 

I do not plan on moving back to England so the independence issue does not matter. (another comment made)I also plan to stay at my current workplace for the foreseeable. 

diamond1984

Prudent said:

You might also want to consider the implications of Scotland potentially becoming independent. If you want to move back to England after that point could you still transfer the pension back in the same way? Might your pension be worth less or more in future if the value of Scottish currency does not move in line with English currency? 

Thank you. I plan to stay in Scotland. 

hyubh

diamond1984 said:

OldBeanz said:

diamond1984 said:

Hello,
I recently moved to Scotland and have started working in a college here. The pension system here (SPPA) seems very similar to the Teachers' Pension run in England. Can anyone advise on whether I should transfer my pension from England (about 10 years worth) to the SPPA scheme or should I keep them both separate? I would rather have my pension pot in one place but can keep it separate if financially better.
Many thanks

Likely to be better but as Macron says you need to get the ball rolling as there is normally a time limit. Obtain that quote and come back here with the numbers and someone will help.

Hi, many thanks. I have received a quote from TP. They would keep my original 4 years of the old scheme (final salary) and then 6 years of the new CARE scheme. What parts of the statement should I look at specifically?

Normal pension ages for the final salary service (presumably the 'down a grade' thing I mentioned above doesn't apply?). CARE NPAs will be the same - presumably the accrued CARE pension is roughly the same too, or is that different...?