Prudential Teachers' AVC's

teachers_advisry_group · 18 June 2009 at 10:55AM

In response to the initial postings - the benefits of a personal pension over the additional pension really comes down to the anticipated retirement age. As I am sure you are aware if you have a normal retirement age of 60 and would like to retire before that age then an actuarilly reduced benefit (a penalty) will be applied to your pension. This will be applied to the additional pension that you purchase through the teachers scheme if you take the benefits early so it is not always the case that this is the bst option. A personal pension will give you a lot more flexibility. My role is to work as part of the teachers advisory group on what is the best course of action for teachers in this instance.

Oxford2 · 20 June 2009 at 12:17PM

Please could anyone tell me if I can continue contributing, on a monthly basis to my teachers pension, even though I am now going to pursue supply teaching.
AVC's maybe?

whitesatin · 20 June 2009 at 8:08PM

Oxford2 wrote: »

Please could anyone tell me if I can continue contributing, on a monthly basis to my teachers pension, even though I am now going to pursue supply teaching.
AVC's maybe?

I took ARP from teaching 2 years ago. Since then I have done a moderate amount of supply work and I am allowed to pay into the pension scheme. I don't work for agencies (not even Eteach) but work instead for the local authority direct in a school where I used to work. I will be 58 this year and not sure how much longer I will feel like working. For each day of supply teaching you do, it counts as 1.8 days to allow for the holiday element. My problem now is that I will probably not have much more than 300 days should I give up now. I didn't intend to take it until I am 60 but my worry is now that unless you have 2 years reckonable service you can't claim a pension at all. Not sure what will happen to my contributions now.

So yes, you can continue to pay into your pension but only if you work for the local authority at the proper rate of pay (not agency pay).