Teachers pension

[BG2015]

After 29 years in education I've just applied for my teachers pension!

6 months to go 🤩

Congratulations! Time to start making some exciting plans.

Hope you have a better experience than my daughter. She received a forecast. Then applied for it before Christmas. Was told it wouldn’t take long. So this week she rang up to enquire about it. Then told there was no record of it. Tried to go online to reapply but I warn you that Teachers Pensions online site is likely to work one time and then not at all telling you that password etc etc is incorrect. Then they lock you out. You then ring up and wait ages and ages for someone to answer and that is if the system doesn’t time you out. You will eventually be given a link via email to reset it. The email link may or may not work. My daughter waited ages for it and you then have to cut and paste it to Teachers Pensions online site which may well tell you that it is invalid. As did my daughter.When you ring up if you are lucky you will get a really helpful person or a really unhelpful one. I am also a retired teacher and I had a reason to encounter the same useless, not fit for purpose web site. It had been fine before but suddenly it didn’t recognise me. I too went through the same procedure as my daughter. I could go on and on but just be prepared. If in any doubt just ask Google for reviews on Teachers Pensions and Trust Pilot will come up. It’s horrific.I could weep for my daughter who is now 61 and physically disabled and desperately in need of her pension. She has become exhausted with frustration with them. So hope you have a better experience.

Just read the 24 pages of one star reviews on Trust Pilot. Recommend this.

I think your daughter has been unlucky.

I've been having no trouble logging into my pension online for years now.

I've been downloading my benefit statement every month since 2020 as I knew I'd be retiring early.

I put my LGP lump sum into my teachers pension in September which was sorted out really well.

On the occasions I have rung them I've had to wait in a queue for a bit which is a total pain.

Hopefully my pension will go through without a hitch

The Facebook group Teachers to Teachers -UK have also been a great help and David Fountains videos on YouTube are also very informative

I found organising what I'd do instead of working ahead of time useful. I retired at 57 but didn't take my TP until 60. The best bit is it's index linked so if inflation gets really high again your pension goes up by inflation, so it does lose its value.

I hope all does go well. All I can say is that my experience is just like my daughter’s and I used to log in without trouble but not now. And also l like many others. If you look at Gransnet as well as Trust Pilot if you google Teachers Pensions Reviews. There are teachers on there, 24 pages of them and all 2024 or this year. Some can’t get lump sums, some can’t get their pension when a spouse died. One so called helper suggested she went to a food bank. The horror goes on if you read all of them

The thing is, regardless of the reviews it’s not as if teachers can choose a different pension provider.
Im aware of many of the issues with TPS, but I also know that the vast majority of my teacher colleagues have no issues at all with it, me included.

Regardless of what the reviews look like, we only have the Teachers Pension to apply to, so we are stuck with them.

Never had any issues getting mine, applied 4 months in advance and paid on time!

I'm joining you😃

@BCBird yay! I'm so glad

@spanieleyes I hope your retirement has been all you hoped it would be

@BG2015
Not quite!
Took retirement and then went back part time. Still, it means I have very long weekends!

Six months is not long to go however, it sounds as if you have been planning this for a while.

Are you intending to fully retire when you get your pension or still work (maybe part-time) doing something else?

This will probably depend on your weekly expenses V Income. It is a good idea to not only do a monthly budget but consider your plans. Something we didn’t do as fully as we should have. Are you hoping to do more travelling (now that you are not tied to the school holidays). Do you have any particular hobbies you would like to explore (clubs, equipment, etc.).

I would also think about your Home. Are you considering moving/downsizing eventually. Are there areas in your home which could do with updating. Do you have too much stuff, etc. If you are retiring completely, or changing job are there things you could pass on to the school/colleagues before you leave.

There is also the Social and Emotional aspects. If you are retiring, what are you retiring to rather than from… Some people find it a big adjustment, others embrace it fully from day one. However, I get the impression that you will be in the last category. Enjoy!

I'm getting a part time job too. Not in education as I just want out from all of that.

But with my pension and a job 3 days a week I'll be on a similar salary to what I'm on now.

We downsized last summer and paid off the mortgage. Moving from a large 4 bedroom 3 bathroom townhouse to a much smaller newish 3 bed semi. It's been a bit of an adjustment living in a smaller house but we've recently just installed a new kitchen, altered the garden and now find it's really working well.

Bills are a lot smaller and the house is so much easier to clean and maintain.

I had breast cancer in 2021 and my mindset has changed so much since then.

I've been planning on retiring for sometime now and have put a great deal of thought into it all.

I'm ready for a new challenge and life not governed by a bell and a very rigid timetable.

BG2015 - Sorry to hear that you had breast cancer, that must have been a difficult time for you and your family. It great that you have so much sorted out and I am sure you will really enjoy working part time and having the space and flexibility to enjoy life more.

My daughter still cant get into Teachers Pensions. She has her forecast but after waiting awhile she was told they had no record of it. She has tried continually ever since, made multiple phone calls, received multiple links which don’t work. Downloaded something that was supposed to work but didn’t. She has had been given links while someone waits on the phone only to be thwarted by the site asking for things which are then supposed to be incorrect or being sent another link which either doesn’t arrive or doesn’t work. She is disabled and desperate for her pension. On top of this frustration her rental property is being sold and she was given 8 weeks notice. You need to produce pension income to show income.

Sorry it was her application for the pension which they can’t find.

My husband applied last year to TP online and it was all sorted online without issue
I applied to TP last autumn to get pension in Jan this year. I decided to go 'old school' and apply on a paper form sending it recorded delivery. (picked this hint up from a post on a review site )Glad I did because it allowed me to check the bit completed by the LEA which had multiple errors. Thanks to a very diligent school secretary and my own checks we were able to get the corrections done promptly and send it all off. No issues since then and 3 payments now received from TP
Apparently TP often get blamed for delays on online applications when the problem is with the LEA or Academy chain. Maybe this is part of your problem?
My husband and I have had more issues from HMRC and tax codes. Thats a whole new story......

Yes I've had to chase my LA a couple of times since my application. They have to fill in a specific form (HR do this NOT your school.) It took me a while to work out who to direct my email to but once I'd done that it was ok. It then stated that my service was confirmed up until 31.8.2025 and I could the see that on my statement online.

They then do something called a data cleanse where they check everything through. A lot of the onus is on you to chase this. School have very little input.

Teachers pensions are now going to be in operation by Tata IT (an Indian IT company based in Mumbai where most pensioner hackers are based). WHY has this been even considered!! I am a retired teacher for several years now. I feel like we are being offered up to the lions to lose our pension funds to possible fraudulent groups, who will be able to access all our details , bank accounts etc.
A very worried lady. ( We were not even consulted!)

I was supposed to receive my lump sum and first pension payment today. Nothing in my bank account though.

Enjoy your last 6 months - it will be done in a flash. It’s taken me a year to ‘get over’ my teacher life and ta adapt to the new ebb and flow but I am so much healthier now I am out of teacher. My BP now firmly ticks along in the normal range.

My teacher pension came through on time no problems. Like you I applied 6 months in advance but sorted out some missing months before that about 2 years ago. The only thing I am waiting for it the mccloud judgement adjustment notification which is going to take the TPS years to sort out but I get the CARE part in 4 years.

Enjoy the school countdown

I'm retired! All done