TPS question

eastcorkram

My OH is a teacher, and she is retiring in April. She has applied for retirement, and has received her options. She knows which one she wants to to take. 

On the options statement, it says you can apply to take whichever option, online. Neither her nor myself, can see how you do this. It tells you to go to your My Pension page. On the menu of that page, is a section called Forms. None of those are about claiming the pension. There is one called applying for retirement, but she's already done that , which is why she's now received the options form. If anyone has recently done this, it would be great if you could explain how you apply online!

On the options page, she has to click whether she's taking all the benefits she's entitled to, or, just the part in the 80ths, or just the part in the 60ths, or just the career average. She has to tick all that apply. Should she tick all four boxes? I can't figure out if you've ticked the first box, all benefits, what the point of ticking the other boxes is. 

QrizB

It's half term week here, maybe all the TPS experts are on holiday

eastcorkram

QrizB said:

It's half term week here, maybe all the TPS experts are on holiday

Maybe. Had another look at it today, but I can't see how to proceed. She has sent an email. She got an immediate response, saying that a proper response might take up to 15 days. 

zagubov

I agree it's likely the TPS-savvy posters won't see this until next week.
It's seven years since I retired, so I don't remember it in too much detail.
Has she given notice to her work? Is she retiring before/after her birthday assuming she's at her Normal Retirement Age?
Is there a good reason for leaving in April rather than August which would give her students more continuity and by completing her academic year, give her a salary during the summer vacation but building her eventual pension even higher?
You need lots of patience dealing with the TPS. They don't rush into anything and unless you ask them to answer specific questions they go into a somewhat unsettling absolute "radio silence" until your pension lands in your bank account.
If you say you want to access the pension and want a certain size of lump some, that can become irreversible.

kpk2000

There is a TPS group on Facebook that has a lot of experienced TPS members on. You may find more advice on there as it has an active range of retired and working TPS members. Give it a search.