Abatement does not apply to a pension from the Career Average arrangement but may apply if you have a Final Salary pension and return to a teaching role that is eligible for participation in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, regardless of whether an opt-out is exercised.

A retired teacher who took up a role as part of the National Tutoring Programme is unlikely to have their teacher’s pension abated as employment as a tutor or academic mentor wouldn’t be in an employment that is eligible to be in the Scheme. Abatement isn’t applied where another employment is undertaken that’s not pensionable in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.

A retired teacher who took up a teaching position funded by the catch-up premium paid to schools would be subject to the same abatement rules as would apply to any other retired teacher returning to teaching. Please note that abatement only applies if you took an Age or Premature retirement pension.

If a Final Salary pension is to be abated, it’ll apply to the amount by which pension and re-employment earnings exceed the salary of reference (highest salary in the average salary period) as calculated at retirement. Further information on abatement is available here and a calculator is also available to show the readjusted level of earnings there can be before abatement might apply. Please note that abatement will only apply if you return to an employment that’s eligible in the Scheme and your Final Salary pension was awarded on the grounds of Age or Premature retirement. You can check your award letter to see if your award was either of these. If you’re still unsure if tutoring may result in the abatement of your pension, we suggest first checking with the relevant employer if the tutoring employment is eligible in the Scheme, and then contacting us if they confirm that it is.

We’re currently doing all we can to make our processes as simple as possible for both our members and employers. This includes the completion of forms. Where possible please continue to complete our online forms via My Pension Online. Where this isn’t possible (as it’s not an online process or you can’t apply online) and you need to complete a paper form, please be aware that we’re temporarily accepting forms with digital signatures. This is to assist those of you that don’t have a printer/scanner at home.

If the form only has a part A (doesn’t require anything from your employer) please upload the form to us via My Pension Online. We can then process it.

If the form has a part B (for your employer to complete) please send part A to your employer (you and your employer will need to decide on a process of how to do this). They will then complete part B and upload it to us via the Employer Portal. We can then process it.

We’ve also temporarily added PDF versions of our ‘online only’ forms in case you need access to these during this time.

• To be able to complete the PDF forms digitally, please use the fill and sign option on Adobe PDF reader (for instructions on how to do this please see below).
• Open the form and save to your files.
• Open PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. This is a free programme that can be downloaded here (This link opens in a new window)
• Once you’ve opened the necessary PDF, choose the option ‘fill and sign’ from the right-hand panel
• Place and click the curser over the blank text box and complete as normal
• Save file.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we’re operating with a reduced volume of staff and it may take us longer to answer your call. If you’re need to call us to report a bereavement or if you need to speak to an advisor today, please do get in touch and we’ll try to answer your call as soon as possible.

We’ve robust processes in place in order to ensure that pensions will still get paid if we have to close our offices. We’ve implemented additional measures to ensure that normal service is not affected.

We continue to actively monitor the situation and are implementing additional measures to deliver transfers and repayments to our members.

We recommend that you submit as much information as possible before the two year deadline explaining what further documentation you intend to submit, and how soon you expect to do so. You should provide details of cancelled appointments and other background information about delays so that we can provide you with advice.