New to Teachers’ Pensions

The Teachers’ Pension Scheme is one of the best tools an employer has for attracting and retaining employees.

As a new employer to the Scheme, this section will help you to understand what is required for you to start administering the Scheme.

Thankfully, there’s plenty of support available to help you understand your responsibilities and you’ll find most of it here and on our Employer Hub. We’d also suggest you read our responsibilities checklist.

Read our useful MDC responsibilities checklist guide

Read our useful MCR responsibilities checklist guide

What you should know

Here are five basic things you should know from the start about the Scheme you now administer.

• The Teachers’ Pension Scheme is a statutory occupational pension scheme and all employees (full-time or part-time) between the ages of 16 and 75 are automatically members – unless they formally opt out
• Once your school is outside of Local Authority control, you’re responsible for deducting your teachers’ pension contributions from their salary and transferring them to us. As their employer, you’re also responsible for paying us the employer’s share of the contributions too. All of this has to happen monthly, no later than the 7th of the month following the deduction of the contributions
• Managing your teachers’ questions, requests and expectations is a big part of the scheme. You won’t need to know all the answers. But you’ll need to know where to direct them to if you don’t. We can help you with that
• Accurate and secure information management is essential. We issue members with personalised information and pay their pensions using details collected and sent to us by employers. It has to be correct
• Finally, the administration of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme is subject to statutory requirements, supervised by the Pensions Regulator. They have the power to impose fines on schemes and employers (and their individual managers) who fail to adhere to them.

Read more about what's next:

• What do I need as a new employer of the Teachers' Pension Scheme?
• Information for new Independent Schools within the Teachers' Pension Scheme
• Keeping up to date with Teachers' Pensions

Have a query?

We’ve a dedicated team at Teachers’ Pensions to support you in carrying out your roles and responsibilities. Our Employer Support Team can provide support on all aspects of administering the Scheme. If you need their help contact them on 0345 300 3756 and they’ll determine the level of support you’ll need.

However, if you have a query that relates to a specific member, then you’ll need to contact our member helpline on 0345 606 6166.