Teacher pension query

yoshiyella

Good day all,

A couple of years ago I opted out of my teachers pension due to financial reasons.
I have now decided to opt back in.

I spent ages filling in the form to opt back in.

A week later I received a notification from Teachers Pension stating application denied and reason given was "I was no longer employed by the school"

I contact HR - they tell me that there was a change of payroll provider - this has been known for several months now. They will contact payroll.

Response - payroll company are not yet on Teachers Pension system and advice is to wait until mid May (so that will be April and May pension contribution missing) before applying again. Was then told I could make a direct contribution however there is no tax relief on this nor school contribution.

This surely can't be right? I understand it won't make much of a difference to my final pension but why should I be penalised due to a 3rd party.

Thanks in advance for time reading and responding.

Marcon

yoshiyella said:

Good day all,

A couple of years ago I opted out of my teachers pension due to financial reasons.
I have now decided to opt back in.

I spent ages filling in the form to opt back in.

A week later I received a notification from Teachers Pension stating application denied and reason given was "I was no longer employed by the school"

I contact HR - they tell me that there was a change of payroll provider - this has been known for several months now. They will contact payroll.

Response - payroll company are not yet on Teachers Pension system and advice is to wait until mid May (so that will be April and May pension contribution missing) before applying again. Was then told I could make a direct contribution however there is no tax relief on this nor school contribution.

This surely can't be right? I understand it won't make much of a difference to my final pension but why should I be penalised due to a 3rd party.

Thanks in advance for time reading and responding.

Ask HR how what they are doing complies with auto enrolment requirements. 

hyubh

yoshiyella said:

Good day all,

A couple of years ago I opted out of my teachers pension due to financial reasons.
I have now decided to opt back in.

I spent ages filling in the form to opt back in.

A week later I received a notification from Teachers Pension stating application denied and reason given was "I was no longer employed by the school"

I contact HR - they tell me that there was a change of payroll provider - this has been known for several months now. They will contact payroll.

Response - payroll company are not yet on Teachers Pension system and advice is to wait until mid May (so that will be April and May pension contribution missing) before applying again. Was then told I could make a direct contribution however there is no tax relief on this nor school contribution.

This surely can't be right? I understand it won't make much of a difference to my final pension but why should I be penalised due to a 3rd party.

Thanks in advance for time reading and responding.

Being DB, my expectation would be that that your April and May contributions will just be paid over late, but that should have no effect on your pension benefits. Confirm to HR this is correct, given at the point you completed and passed over the opt in form, you were a current employee and so eligible member of the TPS according to the scheme regulations. If HR push back, get a clear reason why. What you've received isn't such a reason - the idea you make a direct contribution is nonsense, as it conflates ordinary scheme accrual with an additional pension contract.