Teachers Pension - Retirement Planning

PromoteUnion

Hello all,

I am looking for some pension advice for my Teachers Pension and am not sure where to go. I have had some very brief discussions with the pension service but it was both too broad and went a bit over my head, and I believe I can't get advice from Pension Wise because they offer their free appointment for defined contribution schemes which I understand the Teachers Pension is not.

I am in my early 60s and looking at my retirement options. I have worked in schools in some capacity for almost 20 years, not as a teacher but as a teaching assistant and other support roles such as early morning and dinner lady roles. Technically I work 3 different jobs but my combined income from these is below the personal tax threshold and does not equate to a full 9 till 5.

I have full National Insurance contributions so will get the full state pension when I hit the age requirement. I am divorced but do own my own home and live with my parents who are both retired and we split bills equally. I have a number of health issues that makes work difficult but do not qualify for any government support as far as I can tell. It is difficult for me to work which is why I do not work a full day but I get by. Last year I suffered a stroke but have made an almost full recovery over the past year. The reason for sharing this is to consider options surrounding early retirement due to health issues, but I don't think I meet the requirements as I can still go about my day - just with some struggles.

As I have always had a very low wage, my pension pot is very small. Well, my 3 pension pots given my different roles and the time I started each one with different versions of the Teachers Pension Scheme in place at the same time. I want to retire as soon as possible to not detriment my health any further, in my mind I just need enough to see me to state pension since I own my own home - I have relatively low outgoings that the state pension would comfortably cover (since it's more than I get from my wages now).

To give an example of my current situation, I if were to retire today, I can get £360 a month, or I can take a lump sum which if I put into savings and drew down on equally till state pension age I could get £500 a month until state pension age when I would get state pension + £240 a month from Teachers Pension. At the moment I think that would just about cover living expenses but it would be quite close.

I'm looking for:
Any advice or thoughts of anything further I need to consider? Any support I may be entitled to? Best places to get free professional advice for my situation?

Many thanks all.

Silvertabby

Are you sure that you are in the TPS? Teaching assistant, support and dinner lady posts are usually in the LGPS (Local Government Pension Scheme). The two schemes are comparable, but the LGPS offers more generous ill health retirement benefits than TPS, which could be relevant in your case.

PromoteUnion

Yes you're right, it is LGPS. The 2 are interchangeable to me, shows how much some of it goes over my head. The login page I search is normally teachers but then after clicking through it redirects me to LGPS.

DRS1

EDIT - Just seen your second post Ignore this lot.

There is a facebook page for members of the TPS and maybe you could ask on there. It is mentioned in this thread

Teachers' Pensions — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Wesleyan seem to have some special knowledge of TPS (doubt they are free though). See

Teachers' Pension Scheme - Get the right advice

Do any of your bits of Teachers Pension have an NRA of 60? If so you should probably put that bit into payment as soon as possible.

As for ill health early retirement TPS has two levels depending on whether you can't do ANY work or can't do your normal job. Maybe you have discussed it with your employer and you don't qualify for either of those?

zagubov

There's a facebook group for the LGPS that's mentioned in their teachers pension group. I'd start there for getting more info. They generally start paying out when you're 65 but there may be ways of getting it released early. Have a look around there and ask some questions.

By the way, you may want to amend your thread title to include LGPS instead of Teachers pension

hyubh

• It's worth getting clear on what exactly has been aggregated with what. If a membership involves both final salary and CARE benefits, then while that implies two separate normal pension ages, you won't be able to take different parts of the pension separately outside of a flexible retirement. Whereas if memberships were never aggregated, that doesn't apply.
• 'Normal pension age' (NPA) = age at which drawing your pension doesn't involve an 'actuarial reduction'. Conversely both final salary and CARE components would get an 'actuarial increase' if taken after their respective NPA.
• Final salary NPA is 65, CARE NPA is your state pension age. A potential complication is the 'rule of 85', however going by the dates you've intimated, this probably won't apply. If you can give exact dates we can confirm this however. (The 85 year rule potentially cancels the actuarial reduction for some, and in the past, all of a member's pension.)
• Minimum pension age for taking the pension early with an actuarial reduction will be 55 at present across all scheme variants. The later the NPA, the greater the reduction. (When a membership involves mixed final salary/CARE benefits, any actuarial reductions will be calculated separately.)
• Another reason for understanding what has been aggregated with what is that ill health retirement terms are different if from deferred vs. from active. From active there are three 'tiers', from what you've said you may don't qualify, but check out the national LGPS Members site for details: https://www.lgpsmember.org/your-pension/planning/ill-health-retirement/
• If you first joined the LGPS 20 years ago, then you've got a small bit in the 1997 scheme, another part in the 2008 scheme, and the result in the 2014 one (2008 and 2015 if in Scotland or NI). Only the first will involve an automatic lump sum. Given the 'commutation rate' though, don't reduce your pension to get more lump sum without a very, very good reason. It would be like having a mortgage with a low fixed rate and using high interest savings to pay it off early.

PromoteUnion

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6661314/teachers-pension-retirement-planning

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81937614#Comment_81937614

Thanks, as a new member I can't yet edit the post but will update once that functionality appears. Appreciate the link!