Dear Colleague

Welcome to your Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) Employers’ Toolkit, we hope you find it useful.

As an employer you have a responsibility to keep your employees, who are members of the TPS, informed and updated about their scheme’s provision.

We want to work with you to ensure that you have the information and tools you need to do that well. To achieve this, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and Teachers’ Pensions (TP) have produced the following Employers’ Toolkit, a one stop information shop where you can access most things you will need to know about the modernised TPS in a clear and concise manner.

Please note that the information contained within this Toolkit refers to the revised scheme provisions, which are due to come into effect on 1 January 2007.

If the information you need is not covered in the Toolkit you should log onto the TP website at www.teacherspensions.co.uk or call the Employers’ Helpline on 0845 3003756 where more detailed information is available.

The content of this Toolkit has been based on what you, the employer, have said you want. It is set out in easy to reference sections and colour coded orange for information primarily aimed at employers and blue for TPS members. There are also different areas relating to existing (pre 1 January 2007) and new (post 1 January 2007) scheme members.

It is available in both hard copy and on this CD-Rom for ease of access and reproduction, and is also downloadable from the TP website.

All information contained within this Toolkit can be reproduced and distributed to scheme members and others as needed. There is an additional resources section on the CD-Rom, which contains a presentation that can be downloaded and used as appropriate.

The DfES, TP and the organisations representing you as employers and all major teacher and lecturer unions, have worked very hard to ensure the reformed TPS is a first class, sustainable and adaptable pension scheme.

However, the full benefits of the scheme will only be realised if you understand its provisions, embrace and use its benefits and flexibilities as part of your workforce planning and communicate the scheme well to your employees. Please work with us to make it a success. Thank you.

Yours sincerely

Paul Bleasdale
Head of Pensions and Medical Fitness
Department for Education and Skills