Teachers' Pension Scheme: contributions, retirement ages and your options

The Teachers' Pension Scheme is a career average defined benefit pension for teachers in England and Wales. Each year you work, you build up 1/57th of that year's pensionable earnings, including overtime, as an annual pension for life¹. You pay between 7.4% and 12% of salary towards it, depending on how much you earn, and your employer contributes on top³.

It is a defined benefit scheme, which means the pension is worked out from a formula rather than from what your investments happen to be worth. The scheme's own guidance describes it as a career average arrangement, and all active members have built up benefits this way since 1 April 2022⁵. Older service sits in two final salary sections, and a remedy exercise is giving affected members a choice between the two sets of benefits.

What follows covers what the scheme pays, what it costs, when you can take it, how to apply, what happens if you leave or opt out, what your partner and children get if you die, and the choice that members caught by the final salary remedy will make at retirement.

How the Teachers' Pension Scheme works: a career average defined benefit pension

A defined benefit pension is a workplace pension based on your salary and how long you have worked for your employer, rather than on investment returns¹³. The Teachers' Pension Scheme is one of these, and its main section is a career average scheme¹⁴.

In the career average arrangement, each year of service earns you 1/57th of your pensionable earnings for that year, including overtime¹. That slice of pension is banked, increased for every year you are in service, and revalued each year by the Treasury Order⁴. Part-time members build up at the same 1/57th rate on their actual earnings, not a reduced rate¹⁵.

The scheme also has two final salary sections, known as the 80th and 60th sections, which cover older service¹⁶. Final salary benefits are worked out differently: the average of the best consecutive three years of revalued salaries in the last ten pensionable years is used, or the pensionable salary in the last 12 months before retirement, whichever is more beneficial¹². The final salary scheme closed on 31 March 2022, and since 1 April 2022 all active members build up benefits in the career average scheme⁵.

If you have benefits in both, your final salary benefits are protected and stay in the final salary scheme, and salaries earned in the career average scheme are used to calculate them, which is known as the final salary link¹⁷. When you retire, the value of your pension is calculated using any final salary pension, any career average pension, and any Premature Retirement compensation awarded¹⁸.

Contribution rates: 7.4% to 12% of salary

What you pay depends on how much you earn. From April 2026, member contribution bands run from 7.4% for annual salary up to £36,198.99, up to 12% at the top of the scale³. Contributions are based on the amount you earn each month, so a month with higher earnings than the previous month can move you into a different band for that month⁴.

Each time you are paid, you pay contributions towards the cost of your pension, your employer contributes, and the government helps through tax relief¹⁹. Employer contributions go towards the cost of providing your pension²⁰. In Scotland, the Scottish Teachers' Pension Scheme is separate: employers there contribute 23% of each member's pensionable earnings, and members are required collectively to contribute 9.6% of pensionable pay across the whole scheme membership²¹. The Scottish member contribution structure from 1 April 2024 runs from 9.90% at £46,156 to £54,728 of pensionable pay, through 10.61% at £54,729 to £67,975, 11.73% at £67,976 to £92,693, to 12.14% at £92,694 and above²¹.

The Scottish consultation also records a member contribution yield of 9.6% of pensionable pay across the whole scheme membership, and separately 9.3%, and the two figures are not reconciled in the document²¹. For comparison, the NHS Pension Scheme in Scotland moved to a structure from 1 October 2024 with rates including 6.5% at £13,331 to £23,819, 11.4% at £43,422 to £48,784, 11.7% at £48,785 to £68,222 and 12.7% at £68,223 and above²².

Normal pension age: 60, 65 or State Pension age

Your normal pension age depends on which part of the scheme your benefits sit in, and when you joined. For teachers who joined before 1 January 2007, the normal pension age is 60; for those who joined after that date, it is 65²³. The final salary scheme has two normal pension ages, 60 and 65⁷.

In the career average arrangement, the normal pension age is either your State Pension age or age 65, whichever is the later date¹⁹. That matters because State Pension age is rising. It is currently 66 for both men and women, and is gradually increasing from 65 to 68²⁴. The exact age depends on your date of birth: someone born between 6 September 1960 and 5 October 1960 can claim from 66 years and 6 months, and someone born between 6 December 1960 and 5 January 1961 from 66 years and 9 months²⁶.

The minimum pension age, the earliest age at which you can normally take benefits at all, is changing. It rises from 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028⁶. Members with service in the final salary or career average scheme up to 3 November 2021 keep a protected minimum age of 55⁹. Members of the Teachers' Pension Scheme will generally be able to access benefits at 60 if they joined before 1 January 2007, or 65 if they joined after that date²⁸.

Retiring early, phased or on ill health: your options

Taking your pension before normal pension age is possible, but the pension is worked out on an actuarially adjusted basis, which reduces the annual amount because it is expected to be paid for longer. The standard retirement types are Age, Premature, Early (Actuarially Adjusted), Phased and Ill-health²⁹.

Phased retirement lets you keep working while drawing part of your benefits. If you are over 55 you can choose to continue to work and receive part of your benefits, and you must be 55 or over and within six months of leaving pensionable employment to apply⁷. If you have benefits in the final salary scheme you can take two phased retirements before finally retiring, and if you have benefits in more than one scheme you can choose to take different proportions of your final salary and career average benefits⁸.

Ill health retirement is a separate route, with ill health pension provision to protect you and your loved ones if you are unable to work²⁰. The scheme also provides for Premature Retirement, where forms must be obtained via your employer and completed only if you have been offered that form of retirement¹⁰.

To claim your pension at normal pension age, contributions into the scheme must cease: you retire, take a contractual break, or opt out on or after normal pension age⁷. Your benefits are paid the day after you cease pensionable employment³⁰.

How to apply for your teachers' pension

Retirement benefits are claimed through an online application in My Pension Online, normally submitted six months before your proposed retirement date³¹. Teachers' Pensions will acknowledge receipt of your application, then calculate and authorise your pension for payment¹⁰. You can track progress through Track My Case on My Pension Online, and some retirement forms can be submitted through the same service¹⁰.

Different retirement routes use different forms. Phased retirement uses a form you download, print and complete before sending it to the address on the form, and the same applies to an additional service after retirement³³. Premature Retirement forms must be obtained via your employer¹⁰.

If you are updating who should receive benefits, the easiest way is online via My Pension Online³⁴. If you have lost track of a pension from an earlier job, the government's Pension Tracing Service at www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details can help find the scheme's contact details³⁵.

Leaving, opting out or taking a break from teaching

You can stop paying contributions and opt out of the scheme²⁰. The simplest way is to complete the online form, which is automatically sent to your employer, who provides further details before sending it to Teachers' Pensions²⁰. The opt-out form must only be completed after your employment start date, and you stop paying contributions from the first day of the following month that your opt-out was received at Teachers' Pensions, provided confirmation has been received³⁷.

If you leave your benefits in the scheme, they are index-linked from the date you leave¹². Career average benefits left behind are increased each year by the amount in the Treasury Order¹³. If you have not qualified for benefits, you can take a repayment of your pension contributions¹².

That refund is limited. Under the scheme regulations, members are entitled to a refund only if they have less than two years' qualifying service, and schemes such as the Teachers' Pension Scheme will generally offer to refund contributions if you worked there for less than two years¹⁰. If you were out of service for more than five years, time spent in another public service scheme can reduce the break in service, whether or not you transfer your benefits in³⁸. Pension credit members cannot transfer out of the scheme³⁸.

Pensions for partners and dependants after you die

The scheme pays a pension to your beneficiaries if you die, with an enhancement if you die in service or die after retirement on grounds of ill health with enhanced or total incapacity benefits³². There is also a lump sum payable to your loved ones if you die before retirement²⁰.

If you are married or in a civil partnership, your spouse or civil partner automatically receives a pension after you die, provided you have a minimum of two years' pensionable service³⁴. A surviving qualifying partner who is not a spouse or civil partner will need to provide proof of dependency and interdependency up to the date of the member's death³⁴. If you are still in pensionable service, you can cover previous teaching service within six months of first satisfying the conditions for a partner to qualify for a pension³⁹.

Pensions Increase applies to pensions paid to widows, widowers, nominated partners, civil partners, pension credit members, children and dependants¹². If you are a retired member receiving a spouse's pension, you have two separate pension records, one for your own pension and one for your spouse's pension payable following their death³⁹.

The final salary remedy and the choice you will make at retirement

Some older members were able to remain in their final salary scheme for a further seven years under transitional protection²³. The remedy returns transition members' service to the final salary scheme for the remedy period and allows members to choose between final salary and career average pension benefits for that service⁴⁰. Members in scope receive a choice of either their old or new scheme benefits⁴⁰.

The choice has consequences for anything extra you have bought. If you choose final salary, you are compensated; if you choose career average, your position is reinstated unless you are over retirement age, in which case you are compensated⁴¹. In the final salary scheme there is only the option of Additional Pension, and the flexibility options are to convert to final salary Additional Pension, to cancel and be repaid as a one-off compensation payment with interest, or to cancel and defer compensation until taking benefits and choosing between final salary and career average options for each flexibility taken⁴¹.

Increasing your pension and what happens if you return to work

Additional Pension can be bought in multiples of £250 of annual pension⁴². It is index-linked both while you are working and after you retire, and the partner's pension is half of your own additional pension¹⁶. You cannot purchase additional pension after normal pension age, except if you are in pensionable employment after age 60, and scheme flexibilities can only be purchased by members in pensionable employment, not deferred members¹⁶. The maximum overall extra pension that can be purchased in each arrangement is adjusted in line with Pensions Increase, and the limits are index-linked and adjusted annually, with extra pension built up in one arrangement not counting towards the allowance in the other¹⁶.

If you return to work after retiring, your pension may be suspended where the re-employment is pensionable in the Teachers' Pension Scheme, whether or not you have opted out or remain in the scheme for that employment⁴³. That applies if you are receiving Age final salary benefits and remain in pensionable employment, or receiving Age or Premature final salary benefits and return to work⁴³. Your final salary pension will also be affected if your pension and re-employment earnings exceed your salary of reference⁴³. Earnings from non-teaching work do not affect your pension⁴⁴. Your employer will inform Teachers' Pensions immediately if you take up any employment that is pensionable in the scheme¹⁸.

Where to get help

Teachers' Pensions publishes guidance, calculators and forms for members, including calculators for flexibilities and for how much you can earn as a retired member¹⁶. If something goes wrong with your pension and the scheme cannot resolve it, the Pensions Ombudsman investigates complaints about pension schemes¹⁰.