Teachers Pension

pensionpothelp

Hi everyone, 

I wonder if anyone has had any luck leaving the teachers pension scheme? 

I left teaching last year and now have a new job and wish to transfer what I have into the new scheme with my new job.

When I contacted Teachers Pensions, they implied that I can only withdraw my pension if I am moving to another public sector role which I'm not doing. 

Is there a way round it or do I just end up with two different pensions?

I'm not very savvy when it comes to things like this!

Thanks for any help!

MetaPhysical

Will let other experts comment but you need to remember you do not have a "pot" as such.  You are on a final salary scheme (I also receive a teacher's pension).

Private final salary schemes will sometimes let their members take a "transfer equivalent value" to another pension scheme, basically to get rid of you and their liability to you.   These sums often amount to many hundreds of thousands of pounds.  Can you really imagine the cash strapped government paying those sorts of sums to private pension funds just to get rid of you?

So you will probably have a deferred pension from teachers pensions when you retire.

SVaz

You would be utterly insane to move it, even if you could. It’s protected and guaranteed future income.  

I imagine my Daughter’s TP is ‘worth’ more,  in future income, coming up to age 40,  than my private pensions are at almost 60 and hers is guaranteed to rise, even if she stopped teaching tomorrow. 

MX5huggy

Ending up with two different (or more) is perfectly fine and a lot of people even aim for it. The teachers pension has a value which they give you one your statement. That is how much they promise to pay you every year after retirement date in todays money which will rise by inflation until you can take it. It’s a Defined Benefit scheme ie you know what you will get. 

Your new pension is likely to be Defined Contribution you don’t know what you will get only what you put in. 

The DB is valuable and you don’t want to give that up even if you could. 

dunstonh

When I contacted Teachers Pensions, they implied that I can only withdraw my pension if I am moving to another public sector role which I'm not doing. 
Is there a way round it or do I just end up with two different pensions?

There is a good reason for this.  Very little in the private sector comes close to the public sector pensions.  Statistically, the vast majority of people wanting to do what you have asked them would end up with a far worse outcome than leaving it in the public sector pension.     

so, yes, you leave it there and have multiple pensions.

pensionpothelp

Wow, I can't believe so many have commented in such a short space of time!
Thank you so much; you've really helped! Will keep both pensions
Really appreciate you all commenting - thank you!

MetaPhysical

SVaz said:

You would be utterly insane to move it, even if you could. It’s protected and guaranteed future income.  

I imagine my Daughter’s TP is ‘worth’ more,  in future income, coming up to age 40,  than my private pensions are at almost 60 and hers is guaranteed to rise, even if she stopped teaching tomorrow. 

100%.

My Teacher's Pension is £10k index linked at my age of 57 - for life, underwritten by the government!!!!!  That would need a DC pot size of about £320-340k to get an index linked annuity on the open market.  No crashes to worry about, all the risk (and cost) is on the tax payer. Forget gold plated - diamond plated is what I would suggest they be called.

hyubh

pensionpothelp said:

When I contacted Teachers Pensions, they implied that I can only withdraw my pension if I am moving to another public sector role which I'm not doing.

TP are correct. The TPS is an 'unfunded' public sector scheme (meaning, there is no investment fund behind it), and transfers out from such schemes to a DC scheme (modern private sector schemes and personal pensions) have been disallowed since 2015. While there are a few private sector DB schemes still open, typically they don't allow transfers in, so in effect this rule means you can only transfer your pension to another public sector scheme.

That said, this isn't really much of a loss for the reasons others have said...

diddyflanker

If you were in the TPS for 2 years or more then your pension is "locked" to that scheme OR a very similar "defined benefits" scheme - these are pretty much now only offered in public sector employment - you CAN transfer it to one of these other schemes, but otherwise you are fixed in the TPS. Not a bad thing in most opinions. What you have is a guaranteed, index-linked, pension with a minimum 5-year term and a pension for your partner for the remainder of their life should you die before them.

With less than 2 years you can transfer it to any other UK approved pension scheme, including the "pot of money" schemes. A transfer will give you around 3 times what you have paid into the scheme. You also have the option of taking a refund, but the value is appalling by comparison - for a start you only get a refund of YOUR contribution and NO credit for the 23.6 to 28.6% your employer was paying into the scheme and THEN the Government will take at least 20% of that refund as income tax.