Missing teachers pension scheme service

bontingfromthebeach

I have only just noticed that a teaching fixed term post I did in 2012 is missing from my teachers pension statement. They have advised me to contact the school to try and resolve this but with the head now retired and lots of staff changes I’m sure I will get much help. I know that I haven’t kept payslips or bank statements that far back so not sure what I can do. Has anyone else experienced this? 

Marcon

bontingfromthebeach said:

I have only just noticed that a teaching fixed term post I did in 2012 is missing from my teachers pension statement. They have advised me to contact the school to try and resolve this but with the head now retired and lots of staff changes I’m sure I will get much help. I know that I haven’t kept payslips or bank statements that far back so not sure what I can do. Has anyone else experienced this? 

It's unlikely they will have payroll records from well over a decade ago, but there's an easy and definitive way to find out if you were actually enrolled in the scheme in 2012.

TPS was 'contracted out', meaning members paid lower NI while they were actively contributing to/building up benefits in the scheme.

If you do what my post of 15 May 2021 suggests https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6267734/is-there-a-really-detailed-online-method-to-check-nics/p1 and submit a SAR covering the tax years 2011/12 and 2012/13, that will tell you if you were in 'contracted out' employment for the period in question. You need to read the whole thread (sorry about the length!) to understand how the pieces of the jigsaw fit together.

Bear in mind it's possible that you were never in the scheme for that period of your career. If there is no evidence showing otherwise in your NI history, that's the most likely conclusion.

bontingfromthebeach

Ooh thank you. I suspect this may be a bit of a conundrum to unpick! 

Silvertabby

Payment to TPS should have been automatic - but it may have depended on your contract.  Are you sure that pension contributions were deducted from your pay at the time? 

Also, was it definitely a teaching post, or could it have been a senior TA post?  If the latter, then you may have been admitted to the LGPS.    

 

bontingfromthebeach

It was definitely a fixed term teaching post and I’m 99.9% sure that deductions for my pension were on my payslips.

Silvertabby

Looking at your other posts, you seem to be mainly LGPS rather than TPS.  Was this fixed term post your only foray into TPS?  If so, and if your fixed term was for less than 2 years, then you wouldn't have met the vesting period to qualify for actual TPS pension benefits.  If this is the case, can you remember being asked if you wanted a refund of your contributions or if you wanted to transfer your benefits to another pension scheme?

Marcon

I've just had a look and spotted this comment:

I have two DC pots of £51,000 and £74,000 respectively. I am in the LGPS and have requested in transfer values which have come back at £3,363 and £4,859 respectively. I am 55 and this is my only change to transfer into the CARE scheme and my only pension funds so I need to get it right.

OP, please could you clarify something? You are obviously looking at a statement from the TPS, so must have had membership of that, but I wonder what date the statement has on it - or is it possible your post referred to the only DC pension funds you had?

bontingfromthebeach

Gosh sorry for any confusion. My main pension was in the commercial world which was the funds I transferred into the LGPS on starting there. But, I did have some small periods of teaching whilst raising my family and whilst this was very intermittent and part time the earliest membership of TPS dated back to 2002 so I think that meant that any periods of teaching I did for added to my TPS. It’s only around £900 per annum from retirement altogether but would be slightly more with another teaching contract added. I suspect it may be more of a headache than it’s worth to try and prove this though. 

bontingfromthebeach

I should also say that I can log into the TPS website and see my annual benefit statements but it’s only when trying to remember each contract I had for my new civil service job that I’ve noticed the missing bit of teaching service. 

LHW99

bontingfromthebeach said:

Gosh sorry for any confusion. My main pension was in the commercial world which was the funds I transferred into the LGPS on starting there. But, I did have some small periods of teaching whilst raising my family and whilst this was very intermittent and part time the earliest membership of TPS dated back to 2002 so I think that meant that any periods of teaching I did for added to my TPS. It’s only around £900 per annum from retirement altogether but would be slightly more with another teaching contract added. I suspect it may be more of a headache than it’s worth to try and prove this though. 

I cannot remember when (if) it changed, but I do remember that when I did some part-time teaching in the 1990's I had to complete a form to ensure my part-time service (supply / fixed term contracts) was actually counted as pensionable.

Marcon

LHW99 said:

bontingfromthebeach said:

Gosh sorry for any confusion. My main pension was in the commercial world which was the funds I transferred into the LGPS on starting there. But, I did have some small periods of teaching whilst raising my family and whilst this was very intermittent and part time the earliest membership of TPS dated back to 2002 so I think that meant that any periods of teaching I did for added to my TPS. It’s only around £900 per annum from retirement altogether but would be slightly more with another teaching contract added. I suspect it may be more of a headache than it’s worth to try and prove this though. 

I cannot remember when (if) it changed, but I do remember that when I did some part-time teaching in the 1990's I had to complete a form to ensure my part-time service (supply / fixed term contracts) was actually counted as pensionable.

1 January 2007. Prior to that, part time and supply teachers had to apply to join.

OP - rather than making a SAR for just two tax years, I'd request a history for your full working life to date (link in my first reply above). You might just uncover bits of pension you'd forgotten about, and as you seem to have been employed in major public sector schemes, all of which were contracted out (until contracting out for future service ended for all schemes in 2016), it would show up in your pre-2016 NI history.

If you then decide it's not worth the headache to pursue, you can always abandon the quest!