Trace teachers pension

Punisher1965

My wife was a teacher at a local college around 30 years ago. After maternity leave she didn’t return .. over the years we can’t recall receiving any correspondence re her pension . Even though we haven’t moved in that time. We have contacted Teachers Pensions providing all information we possibly can and all we’ve received is a standard letter saying we haven’t provided all the information they require. From the list the only item we haven’t provided is the Teachers Reference Number, which after 30 years we don’t know! … However they have the 5 pieces of information they asked for when we phoned. Currently on hold to try and speak to someone . In the absence of a meaningful discussion on the phone does anyone have any advice they could provide ?

Thanks

Keep_pedalling

How long was she in that pension scheme?

Punisher1965

3 years . The college she worked for changed hands due to financial problems so I’m not sure if that has led to the paper trail going cold ..

forragingfowl200

You could try the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) to find out her teacher ref no.

The GTCE issued mine. It was taken over by the Teaching Agency which chatGPT tells me is now the TRA.

Teacher Pensions - Teacher to Teacher is a really good Facebook group run by teachers who are helping each other collectively navigate these and other issues. You could try posting on there if you get no luck.

Punisher1965

thanks .. very helpful. Cheers

Silvertabby

NI number, name, and date of birth should be all that TPS need to trace a pension record. If one exists.

Is it possible that your wife had less than 2 years membership when she left - perhaps because she opted out - and then took up the offer of a refund of her contributions ?

Marcon

My wife was a teacher at a local college around 30 years ago. After maternity leave she didn’t return ..

The college she worked for changed hands due to financial problems

Was this college within the state system? If not, it may well not have offered any sort of pension scheme to employees.

If it was within the state system, it's possible that she wasn't in the TPS - so if you continue to draw a blank there, it's worth checking if she was in the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Silvertabby

LGPS is also a possibility if your wife was employed in a Teaching Assistant role, rather than as an actual teacher.

Punisher1965

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82060265#Comment_82060265

She was employed over two years certainly .. and as far as she can remember she didn’t opt out .

We’ve established after a lengthy wait on the phone that the letter we received was quite misleading (it just said she hadn’t provided all the info they req’d). It transpires the DoB provided doesn’t match their records so she has been asked to provide her birth certificate or passport or driving licence . She asked if they could see if there was a pension otherwise we’re wasting everyone’s time but they couldn’t say ..

we will see what the response is . Thanks for the reply

Punisher1965

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82060089#Comment_82060089

thanks .. we’re pretty sure she was there 3 years + and didn’t have refunded contbns . From a phone call earlier it seems the letter to her eas less than helpful and there is an error in their records in relation to her DoB which we are now resolving

Punisher1965

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82060239#Comment_82060239

thanks for the reply .. we’ve already gone down the Local Govt route and drawn a blank . Telcon indicates there’s an error in her DOB at their end .. shame the letter from them didnt say that …