Are there any experts on pensions around? I'm very worried about mine.

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I'm an academic and have been working for the same university for over 20 years. During that time, my pension contributions have come out of my payslip every month – I am with the Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS), in case it matters.

I got a blank email from the TPS in early August which was sent to people who opted out of the scheme. This sent alarm bells ringing and I got in touch with the pensions team at my university. They told me that my pension contributions were up to date, but these were "non reckonable" due to an error made when I first joined the university over 20 years ago. They gave me an "election to join" form, which I completed, and this should allow the pensions team to alter all of my service at X university to reckonable, "meaning you will receive whatever benefits are due to you based on this service."

Does this mean I will get the accumulated interest accrued over the time I've been paying my contributions? Also, it's mid September now, the pensions team have been in touch with the TPS, have sent all sorts of evidence, etc, yet things are still unresolved.

What are your thoughts? Thank you very much in advance.

Have you registered for the online access? You can check your service history and current entitlement on there.

TPS is a defined benefit scheme so there is no accrued interest. They will recalculate the amount payable based on your correct years of service.

Dearreader, I registered in early August after I got that blanket email and found I had no service history. That's when I contacted the pensions team at my university.

JackCollins, thanks for clarifying that. So you think this can be resolved quite easily? I'm finding the whole thing pretty scary...

I have a pension with the TPS. As a previous poster said you can see how much you’ve accrued online if you register. As it’s not a pot of money, but a commitment to pay you x amount each year, you won’t have lost any interest.

It sounds like it's easily rectified as they told you they could change your previous years to "reckonable". I had a similar issue with lgps (support staff equivalent) due to a change in contract and they linked everything up. It did take ages though.

Oh, thanks, that makes me feel better. I did register with the TSP but it shows I have no service history with them. It is a worry, but I'm reassured it's probably nothing to worry about.

You can always ask Teacher's Pensions for your service history. If it doesn't seem correct, then you need to ask your local authority to look into any missing service and they can get it corrected for you.

My employer sorted out my missing service history their end. I would speak to your payroll department about this.

Thanks for this information, I feel much better now.

Is it possible- and if so have you paid - any Additional Voluntary Contributions? These can be (are in mine at least) held in a different pot to the main pension and are more likely to be treated as a lump sum / with interest / increasing with the value of the stock market etc (depends on your pension rules). If you have paid these (and they will show on a separate line on your payslip) then I'd check on those.

The other thing to flag is that sometimes defined benefit schemes have different sections in them depending on when you joined eg my husband's section allows him to retire at 50 but mine only (!) lets me retire at 55 (for a vastly reduced payout). If the teachers one is similar, make sure they put you in the bit that you are entitled to i.e. with the terms and conditions in force at the time you joined, not as they are now, as that could make a difference. Again, my husband's pension is made up of different groups of years that are calculated differently (less favourably as time went on and the scheme became more expensive).

Sunshine, that's a really good point and one I hadn't thought about. Thank you.